Other states besides South Dakota have passed laws requiring the provision of medically irrelevant or inaccurate information. Before the law went into effect, however, a federal judge blocked it, finding that it violated women’s constitutional rights. For example, a law passed this year in South Dakota created a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion may be performed and requires any woman seeking an abortion to visit a pro-life crisis pregnancy center, which is specifically defined in the law as an entity with the principal mission of “help a pregnant mother maintain her relationship with her unborn child”.
Informed Consent and Waiting PeriodsĪlthough informed consent is a standard requirement before providing medical treatment of any kind, many states have abortion-specific informed consent laws that can be burdensome or inappropriate. The bill has not yet become law, however, and if it does pass, several abortion-rights groups have stated their intention to challenge it immediately in court. This bill would be the most stringent abortion law in the country, prohibiting virtually all abortions. In Ohio, legislators introduced the so-called “Heartbeat Bill,” which would ban all abortions (except to save the life of the woman or prevent severe physical harm) after the fetal heartbeat could be detected-which can be as early as 6 weeks’ gestation. Only one-Idaho’s-has been challenged in court, and it was not struck down because the woman challenging the law did not have the legal “standing” to challenge it that is, she was neither a patient seeking a late-term abortion nor a doctor who performs them, and therefore she was not directly affected by the law. Yet, despite their apparent unconstitutionality, such laws are currently in effect in the six states named. Viability must be determined by the individual physician but is generally understood to occur at approximately 24 weeks’ gestation. Supreme Court has made it clear that states may not ban abortion outright before the fetus is determined to be viable. Regardless of the state of the medical evidence on fetal pain, the U.S. These laws are sometimes justified by the legislators’ view that fetuses can feel pain at or around 20 weeks’ gestation-a view that is mostly rejected by the medical literature.
In 2011, five more states (Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma) followed suit.
In April 2010, Nebraska passed a law banning all abortions after the twentieth week of pregnancy, except to save the life of the woman or protect her from a severe threat to her physical health. Banning Abortion before the Fetus Is Viable The following are a few of the most common or most notable types of laws to appear this year. Many of these laws are more extreme than any we have seen in decades. Though this statistic encompasses a wide array of rules and regulations, a few trends clearly emerge. In the first half of the year, when most of the legislative activity took place, more than 80 abortion-related restrictions were enacted across the United States. More anti-abortion legislation was passed in 2011 than in any other year since Roe v.
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