In a huge victory for US pro-lifers the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted a temporary injunction against the Texas’ sonogram law. The law requires that women seeking to abort their babies be given information on their baby’s stage of development and that they should be offered the option of hearing his or her heartbeat. see reports from LifeSite news and lifenews.com
The federal appeals court ruled that the pro-life law passed last year may now be enforced. The law, passed in the 2011 Legislative Session had been appealed by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), which also obtained a temporary injunction to stop it going into effect last September.
The three-judge panel of the Texas Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the temporary injunction against the law and dismissed opponents’ claims that the law was an assault on abortionists’ constitutional rights as a form of forced-speech.
According to Chief Judge Edith H. Jones;
“The required disclosures of a sonogram, the fetal heartbeat, and their medical descriptions are the epitome of truthful, non-misleading information,”
The point of informed consent laws according to Jones;
[…] is to allow the patient to evaluate her condition and render her best decision under difficult circumstances,” she wrote. “Denying her up-to-date medical information is more of an abuse to her ability to decide than providing the information.”
Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry, who signed the bill into law last year, praised the court’s decision.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for all who stand in defense of life. Every life lost to abortion is a tragedy, and this important sonogram legislation ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying, and understands the devastating impact of such a life-ending decision,”
