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Appeals Court to Hear Challenge to Pro-Life South Dakota Law

Dec 7, 2011

By Kathy Ostrowski, Kansans for Life Legislative Director

Judge Karen Schreier

The last remaining piece of a South Dakota bill passed in 2005, a pro-life bill that has been the subject of numerous legal challenges, will be heard January 9 before a panel of judges of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Part of H.B. 1166 was an informed consent warning to women that abortion elevates suicide risk. Last September a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit upheld a lower court decision that concluded that the link was unproven and may not exist. The state appealed and the case will come before a full panel of up to 12 judges.

In his dissent, Judge Raymond Gruender pointed out the evidence was strong for the suicide risk, if only because it logically follows that suicide is based in depression, which both sides accepted as a risk of abortion.

More importantly, Judge Gruender discussed the strong evidence presented by the state as opposed to that presented by Planned Parenthood which rested on a deeply flawed 2008 American Psychological Association Task Force study.

Ironically, on the very same day the panel’s decision came down, a huge “study of studies” (a meta-analysis) in a prestigious psychiatric journal was published supporting what certain judges bristle at: that abortion causes significant mental harms.

But other parts of the 2005 law have survived challenges by Planned Parenthood. The 8th Circuit upheld the provision of H.B. 1166 that abortion-seeking women must be informed they have a legally protected “existing relationship” with their unborn child and that the unborn child is a separate human being.

The dispute over H.B.1166 is separate from another lawsuit over a 2011 South Dakota law. To no one’s surprise, U.S. Judge Karen Schreier blocked implementation last July of H.B. 1217, which requires a three-day waiting period after a woman meets with an abortionist. Women would consult with a pregnancy help center in the interim. A date for a hearing by an appeals court has not been set.

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Categories: Legislation