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  • Title: Forced counseling, delays continue as mainstays of antiabortion agenda.
    Author: Saul R.
    Journal: State Reprod Health Monit; 1997 Jun; 8(2):8-9. PubMed ID: 12348028.
    Abstract:
    The US Supreme Court's 1983 decision in the Akron case enjoined states from requiring that women seeking abortions submit to extensive biased counseling and waiting periods. The 1992 Casey ruling, however, found that a state can regulate abortion services so long as the regulations do not place an "undue burden" on the woman seeking abortion. Since then, 8 states have increased the total to 11 that mandate an enforced counseling/waiting period, and 9 more states have enacted counseling requirements but no mandated delay. In 1997, Florida enacted expanded "informed consent" provisions that force a woman to submit to state-scripted counseling. A lawsuit has already been filed to challenge this law. In Kansas, North Dakota, and Utah, existing counseling/waiting period policies were amended to make them more stringent. Similar legislation is pending but unlikely to be enacted in California and North Carolina, while legislators in Ohio are creating an amendment to require face-to-face counseling. Counseling/waiting period legislation died after serious consideration in Alabama, Arizona, Maine, and Virginia. A US District Court judge upheld Wisconsin's law mandating a 24-hour waiting period and state-scripted counseling while voicing her dismay about the law. The judge did, however, rule against several specific counseling requirements and delayed the law's implementation until she could review the state-scripted materials. A ruling in Michigan that upheld the state's counseling/waiting period has been appealed to Michigan's Supreme Court.
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