老澳门开奖结果

NEW YORK 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 today filed a legal challenge to block a Kentucky abortion restriction that was rushed through the state legislature just days into the new session.

The law, H.B.2, requires doctors to display, and narrate in detail, an ultrasound to a woman prior to providing an abortion procedure, even if the woman objects and even if the doctor believes that it will harm the patient.

鈥淭he law is an example of political interference operating in its most perverse form,鈥� said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney at the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Reproductive Freedom Project. 鈥淎 woman deserves to expect high quality compassionate care from her doctor. Instead, this law puts politicians in the exam room 鈥� squarely between a woman and her doctor.鈥�

The law requires that the doctor show and describe the ultrasound images even if the woman averts her eyes or asks the doctor to stop. According to expert testimony presented in the lawsuit, the law violates basic principles of medical ethics and informed consent by compelling doctors to dismiss a patient鈥檚 objections.

Notably, the law provides no exception for circumstances where the doctor believes the ultrasound will have a traumatic effect on patients, including for women who became pregnant as a result of rape or incest or who face a medical condition or fetal anomaly.

鈥淩equiring doctors to show every woman an ultrasound image and to describe them to her 鈥� even against her will 鈥� violates longstanding constitutional principles, including the right to privacy, the right to bodily integrity, and First Amendment freedoms,鈥� said William Sharp, legal director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Kentucky.

Kentucky鈥檚 mandatory ultrasound law is nearly identical to a North Carolina law that was unanimously struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2014. In holding that law unconstitutional, the court explained that the ultrasound law 鈥渋nterferes with the physician鈥檚 right to free speech beyond the extent permissible for reasonable regulation of the medical profession, while simultaneously threatening harm to the patient鈥檚 psychological health, and compromising the doctor-patient relationship.鈥�

The law was one of three bills introduced by Kentucky politicians in the first week of the state鈥檚 legislative session. The Kentucky Legislature also signed into law was S.B. 5, which bans abortion procedures after 20 weeks of gestation. (The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 legal analysis on that measure is now underway). In their haste to pass these new abortion restrictions, the legislature took the highly unusual step of making both restrictions effective immediately upon the governor鈥檚 signature.

These new Kentucky laws are just the latest in a torrent of restrictions passed by state legislatures over the last few years. In fact, states have passed 338 restrictions since 2010, excluding the new Kentucky laws, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Today鈥檚 challenge was brought by the 老澳门开奖结果 and the 老澳门开奖结果 of Kentucky on behalf of EMW Women鈥檚 Surgical Center 鈥� the sole licensed outpatient abortion facility in the state 鈥� and its three physicians and their patients.

More about this case can be found here: /cases/emw-womens-surgical-center-v-beshear