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WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, October 14, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Florida Appeals court has upheld an earlier decision to strike down a law requiring doctors to outline risks of abortion before committing the procedure.

The “Women’s Right to Know Act” required that, prior to obtaining an abortion, women be provided with information on the procedure and other options available to them, such as adoption. The flier the abortionists would have been required to give to women also highlighted that services such as housing and health care would be provided if this would help a woman to carry a baby to term.  The 4th District Court of Appeal said the law was unconstitutional because “it imposes significant obstacles and burdens upon the pregnant woman which improperly intrude upon the exercise of her choice between abortion and childbirth,” as stated in Judge W. Matthew Stevenson’s majority opinion.

An injunction blocked the state from enforcing the law that was enacted in 1997. An appeals court ruled in 1998 that the law might be unconstitutional, keeping the injunction in place. The bill “does not allow a physician to tailor the information to the woman’s circumstances, (and) infringes on the woman’s ability to receive her physician’s opinion as to what is best for her, considering her circumstances,” the 1998 court ruling claimed.  Tv