Texas Abortion Law Unblocked

A Texas law enacted last year required abortion providers to show or describe an ultrasound image to a pregnant woman and to play sounds of the fetal heartbeat.

A coalition of medical providers sued to block the law in June 2011, arguing that the law made doctors a "mouthpiece" for the state's ideological message. The First Amendment includes protections against compelled speech.

The challengers, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, also argued that disclosure of the sonogram and fetal heartbeat was not "medically necessary" and therefore beyond the state's power to regulate the practice of medicine.

A federal judge in Austin granted the providers' request for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the law violated physicians' free-speech rights.

Sadly for abortion advocates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit yesterday overturned the judge's ruling to block the law.

Not everyone was happy.

The president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northup, said in a statement that the appellate decision "clears the way for the enforcement of an insulting and intrusive law whose sole purpose is to harass women and dissuade them from exercising their constitutionally protected reproductive rights."

On the other hand, Texas Governor Rick Perry praised the ruling.