Doe v. Bolton

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Georgia law proscribes an abortion except as performed by a duly licensed Georgia physician when necessary in "his best clinical judgment" because continued pregnancy would endanger a pregnant woman's life or injure her health; the fetus would likely be born with a serious defect; or the pregnancy resulted from rape. § 26-1202(a) of Ga. Criminal Code. In addition to a requirement that the patient be a Georgia resident and certain other requirements, the statutory scheme poses three procedural conditions in § 26-1202(b): (1) that the abortion be performed in a hospital accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH); (2) that the procedure be approved by the hospital staff abortion committee; and (3) that the performing physician's judgment be confirmed by independent examinations of the patient by two other licensed physicians. Appellant Doe, an indigent married Georgia citizen, who was denied an abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy for failure to meet any of the § 26-1202(a) conditions, sought declaratory and injunctive relief, contending that the Georgia laws were unconstitutional. Others joining in the complaint included Georgia-licensed physicians (who claimed that the Georgia statutes "chilled and deterred" their practices), registered nurses, clergymen, and social workers. Though holding that all the plaintiffs had standing, the District Court ruled that only Doe presented a justiciable controversy. In Doe's case the court gave declaratory, but not injunctive, relief, invalidating as an infringement of privacy and personal liberty the limitation to the three situations specified in § 26-1202(a) and certain other provisions, but holding that the State's interest in health protection and the existence of a "potential of independent human existence" justified regulation through § 26-1202(b) of the "manner of performance as well as the quality of the final decision to abort." The appellants, claiming entitlement to broader relief, directly appealed to this Court.

Stenberg v. Carhart: Legalizes Partial Birth Abortion

October 1, 2003—Washington, DC: Members appointed to a conference committee to complete work on the partial-birth abortion ban are wasting no time in getting started. They are expected to meet Tuesday, where they will remove an amendment to the bill added in the Senate that endorses the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Hill v. Colorado: Bubble Zone Law At Abortion Clinics

By a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday upheld Colorado's "bubble law", ruling that the law protects abortion clinic patients and physicians from harassment without violating protestors' rights to free speech, the New York Times reports. The 1993 law makes it a crime for anyone within 100 feet of a health clinic to distribute leaflets, display signs or engage in "sidewalk counseling" within eight feet of a clinic visitor, unless given permission to do so. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy dissented (Greenhouse, New York Times, 6/28). Writing for the majority, Justice Stevens said: "The right to free speech, of course includes the right to attempt to persuade others to change their views, and may not be curtailed simply because the speaker's message may be offensive to his audience. But the protection afforded to offensive messages does not always embrace offensive speech that is so intrusive that the unwilling audience cannot avoid it." Justice Stevens concludes that the eight-foot buffer zone "leaves ample room to communicate a message through speech." Not all justices agreed with the decision, as Scalia called it "one of the many aggressively pro-abortion novelties announced by the court in recent years." Kennedy said, "The Constitution doesn't permit criminalization of peaceful dissemination of unpopular views" (Denver Rocky Mountain News, 6/29).

Washington v. Glucksberg: Euthanasia (download .pdf file)