Judge Blocks North Dakota's Medication Abortion Reversal Law
The law required doctors to tell patients they could reverse their “medicated abortion” if they acted quickly and underwent what a judge called “unproven medical treatment.”
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge in North Dakota on Tuesday blocked a state law enacted earlier this year that required physicians to tell women they may reverse a so-called medication abortion if they have second thoughts.
North Dakota is among eight states to pass or amend laws requiring doctors to tell women undergoing medication abortions they can still have a live birth after the procedure. The other states with similar laws are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Utah. Five of those laws were passed this year.
The North Dakota law also would require doctors to tell the patient “time is of the essence” if she changes her mind.
Tammi Kromenaker, director of North Dakota’s sole abortion clinic in Fargo, which filed a lawsuit in June, said the law would force doctors to give false information that is not backed up by science.
’It’s simple,” Kromenaker said. “Patients need to be able to trust their providers.”
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland said in his order that state lawmakers should not be mandating unproven medical treatments and the provisions of the bill “go far beyond” any informed consent laws addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “or other courts to date.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judge-blocks-north-dakotas-medication-abortion-reversal-law_n_5d77d7ade4b064513575b51e