Abortion

Anti-Choice Group Asks to Testify In North Carolina Case

Jubilee Campaign Law of Life Project says it "knows better" than the ACLU or Planned Parenthood what would be said when describing an ultrasound.

When a North Carolina judge halted a new law that would have forced doctors to fully narrate an ultrasound to a woman seeking an abortion, she declared that mandating a health practitioner’s speech was likely unconstitutional.

Now, a new anti-choice group in D.C. is asking to testify in the case, saying that it represents crisis pregnancy centers and “post-abortive” women who would could explain what the doctors would really have to say and why it was necessary to help women choose not to have abortions.

Via the Charlotte Observer:

In the new motion, the Law of Life Project counters that doctors and counseling centers are in a better position than the defendants to testify about what might be said in that situation.

Seeking to intervene in the case are Dr. John Thorp, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at UNC-Chapel Hill who contends in a declaration that the requirements in the new law represent the standard of care in the field; Dr. Gregory J. Brannon, an obstetrician who says a woman can’t be considered informed about abortion without being told that the “tissue to be removed is a separate, unique living human being who is genetically different from the mother”; and Dr. Martin J. McCaffrey, a UNC-CH professor of pediatrics who counsels women about high-risk pregnancies.

The four North Carolina women who want to join the case are Chimere Collins of Greensboro, Danelle Hallenbeck of Bunnlevel, Tracie Johnson of Iron Station, and Lanita Wilks of Charlotte. All had abortions and say they were harmed because either they weren’t shown ultrasounds or the procedure wasn’t explained to them.

Also seeking to intervene are Asheville Pregnancy Support Services and the Pregnancy Resource Center of Charlotte.

The Jubilee Campaign “lobbies Congress on behalf of those suffering religious persecution and human rights violations.”  Apparently “religious persecution” means not being allowed to force women to carry pregnancies to term.