Abortion Law

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- Agnes Mary Mansour, who gave up her religious vows rather than resign as Michigan's welfare director in a showdown with the Vatican over abortion, has died. She was 73. Miss Mansour died Friday at McAuley Center, an assisted-living facility operated by the Sisters of Mercy. She was a member of the order for 30 years and an associate for the 20-plus years following dispensation from her vows. Controversy arose in the 1980s over her role as a nun and as head of an agency that oversaw Medicaid funding for abortions for low-income women.

When lawmakers take aim at abortion, they draw on an ever-growing arsenal of restrictions and mandates imposed on women, doctors and clinics. But do these measures reduce abortions? It's a question with no simple answer. Abortion providers and abortion-rights advocates say many of the laws — those requiring ultrasounds, waiting periods and specific types of counseling — are burdensome and demeaning, but rarely dissuade women who want the procedure. "The reality is that if a woman has decided that's what right for her, she'll do whatever it takes to get it done," said Peter...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said yesterday that it would enforce a nearly 3-year-old federal law that requires doctors to attempt to keep alive a fetus that survives an abortion. In making the announcement, the Department of Health and Human Services Department said it was an attempt to educate the public about the little-known law. Officials said they didn't know how often a fetus survives an abortion and would not say whether there have been any complaints about a lack of enforcement.

The law that requires pregnant girls seeking abortions tell their parents or get a judge's OK is back before the New Hampshire House. The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on a bill to change the requirement that a judge issue a ruling within 48 hours to within two court business days. That would mean girls filing petitions late in a week would not hear back over a weekend, effectively lengthening their wait time. The law requiring parental notice took effect Jan. 1 after lawmakers overrode Gov. John Lynch's veto.

LINCOLN, Neb. — It has been called a groundbreaking law, but a measure approved in Nebraska last week that changes the rationale for abortion bans probably will not go into effect anytime soon. Instead, abortion opponents are hoping it will become the most important case on abortion to reach the US Supreme Court in years. Even they acknowledge the ban on abortions — which applies to women at and after 20 weeks of pregnancy — will not see the light of day unless the high court rules that it is constitutional.

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana won a key victory in its fight to cut off public funding for Planned Parenthood yesterday when a federal judge refused to block a tough new abortion law, a move that could boost Governor Mitch Daniels’ image among social conservatives as he considers running for president on the GOP ticket. US District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied Planned Parenthood of Indiana’s request for a temporary restraining order on the grounds that the law would jeopardize health care for thousands of women on Medicaid.

AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas abortion law passed last year that requires doctors to show sonograms to patients can be enforced while opponents challenge the measure in court, a federal appeals court said yesterday in a ruling that signaled the judges believe the law is constitutional. When the state will begin enforcing the law was not clear. The group that brought the case, the Center for Reproductive Rights, is weighing how to proceed and has 14 days to ask for a rehearing of the case.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorney General Drew Edmondson has agreed to a court order requested by abortion providers to temporarily block enforcement of a new state law, which requires women to get an ultrasound and hear a detailed description of the fetus. The agreement was announced yesterday before a hearing in Oklahoma County District Court on the request for a temporary restraining order by the Center for Reproductive Rights. District Judge Noma Gurich said attorneys for both sides told her they would accept the order.

PIERRE, S.D. — Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday seeking to block a South Dakota law that would require women seeking abortions to face the nation’s longest waiting period — three days — and undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortion. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to suspend the law until a final ruling on whether it violates a woman’s constitutional right to abortion established under the US Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration yesterday jumped into the legal dispute over a New Hampshire abortion law, arguing that the outcome could affect a final ruling on a federal abortion law that three courts have struck down. In a legal brief filed with the Supreme Court, Department of Justice officials said New Hampshire's parental notification law for minors seeking abortion does not violate the Constitution, and urged justices to uphold it. The court decided in May to review the 2003 New Hampshire law. An appeals court ruled it was unconstitutional because it...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested Friday that her predecessors on the high court mistimed the milestone 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. "It's not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast," Ginsburg told a symposium at Columbia Law School marking the 40th anniversary of her joining the faculty as its first tenure-track female professor. At the time of Roe v. Wade, abortion was legal on request in four states, allowed under limited circumstances in about 16 others, and outlawed under nearly all circumstances in the...

AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas abortion law passed last year that requires doctors to show sonograms to patients can be enforced while opponents challenge the measure in court, a federal appeals court said yesterday in a ruling that signaled the judges believe the law is constitutional. When the state will begin enforcing the law was not clear. The group that brought the case, the Center for Reproductive Rights, is weighing how to proceed and has 14 days to ask for a rehearing of the case.

OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma judge yesterday temporarily blocked from taking effect a new law designed to reduce the number of abortions performed in the state by restricting the ways in which doctors can treat women with abortion-inducing drugs. Oklahoma County District Judge Daniel Owens issued the ruling after a conference call with attorneys for both sides. The temporary injunction prevents the bill from going into effect Nov. 1. Passed earlier this year by the GOP-controlled Legislature, the measure requires doctors to follow the strict guidelines and protocols authorized by the Food and...

WICHITA, Kan. - A federal judge refused yesterday to block a new Kansas law restricting insurance coverage for abortions, meaning women will have to pay for the procedure on their own or buy separate policies as a lawsuit challenging the controversial law plays out in court. The law prohibits insurance companies from offering abortion coverage as part of general health plans, except when a woman's life is at risk. Patients who want abortion coverage would have to buy supplemental policies, known as riders.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A federal judge temporarily blocked Kansas yesterday from enforcing new abortion regulations that would prevent two of the state’s three abortion providers from continuing to terminate pregnancies. US District Judge Carlos Murguia’s injunction will remain in effect until a trial is held in a lawsuit challenging the rules. A new licensing law and state health department regulations took effect yesterday. The new law requires hospitals, clinics, and doctor’s offices to obtain an annual license from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to...

PIERRE, S.D. — Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday seeking to block a South Dakota law that would require women seeking abortions to face the nation’s longest waiting period — three days — and undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortion. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to suspend the law until a final ruling on whether it violates a woman’s constitutional right to abortion established under the US Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.

MADRID - Lawmakers voted to ease Spain’s abortion law yesterday, approving a bill to allow the procedure without restrictions up to 14 weeks. The change would bring this traditionally Roman Catholic country in line with its more secular neighbors in northern Europe. The Senate is expected to pass the measure early next year. Abortion reform was the last major pending issue in a bold reform agenda undertaken by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a Socialist who took power in 2004.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested Friday that her predecessors on the high court mistimed the milestone 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. "It's not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast," Ginsburg told a symposium at Columbia Law School marking the 40th anniversary of her joining the faculty as its first tenure-track female professor. At the time of Roe v. Wade, abortion was legal on request in four states, allowed under limited circumstances in about 16 others, and outlawed under...

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana won a key victory in its fight to cut off public funding for Planned Parenthood yesterday when a federal judge refused to block a tough new abortion law, a move that could boost Governor Mitch Daniels’ image among social conservatives as he considers running for president on the GOP ticket. US District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied Planned Parenthood of Indiana’s request for a temporary restraining order on the grounds that the law would jeopardize health care for thousands of women on Medicaid.