News

Thursday July 15, 2010


Nebraska Judge Blocks Bill Screening High-Risk Abortion-Bound Women

By Kathleen Gilbert

OMAHA, Nebraska, July 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.S. District Court Judge in Nebraska has granted a preliminary injunction requested by Planned Parenthood and blocked enforcement of a law that would have ensured that mothers seeking abortions undergo mental health screening.

Judge Laurie Smith Camp of Federal District Court on Wednesday blocked enforcement of LB 594, saying that the bill’s framework “creates a profound chilling effect” on abortionists’ practice, and creates “substantial, likely insurmountable obstacles in the path of women seeking abortions in Nebraska.” The law was to take effect Thursday.

The court rejected other motions by Planned Parenthood, however, including the abortion group’s motion to strike the legislature’s finding of fact in the law stating that “the existing standard of care for pre-abortion screening and counseling is not always adequate to protect the health needs of women.”

The law would amend the current consent requirements in Nebraska law, mandating that abortionists must screen mothers for evidence of coercion and risk factors known to increase the likelihood of post-abortion complications, and notify them if they are at higher risk. In addition, the law provides for women to sue abortionists for psychological damage if they feel the abortionist did not adequately inform them of the risk factors.

The Eliot Institute, a group dedicated to researching post-abortion complications, pointed out that the injunction merely blocks the government from enforcing the law through loss of license or other disciplinary actions, but leaves intact women’s ability to seek legal action.

A hearing to determine whether to grant a permanent injunction is expected within several weeks.

Greg Schleppenbach, the director of Pro-Life Activities for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, said that the ruling granting the preliminary injunction was “very disappointing.”

“We felt strongly that this was, and is, a very reasonable and very important requirement to protect women from an unscrupulous abortion industry – from literally an assembly line factory or abortion mill process where it’s more of a technician/customer relationship than it is a doctor/patient relationship,” he told LifeSiteNews.com.

Schleppenbach pointed out that Planned Parenthood itself has acknowledged the existence of such risk factors predisposing women to post-abortion complications.

“They of course always try to downplay the prevalence of post-abortion complications,” he said, “but they will admit that while whatever percentage of women seem to suffer pac (post-abortion complications) it’s because they have predisposing factors. So this bill simply puts that standard of care into law.”

Dave Bydalek of Family First in Nebraska told OneNewsNow that, by the time the next hearing takes place, “I think that the judge will get a better understanding of what the law really does and why it’s constitutional when we get to put on evidence at that time.”


See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Nebraska Enacts Landmark Abortion Health Screening Law

https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10041304.html