US
Minnesota Strikes Down Law Requiring Women Having Abortions To View Ultrasound
Ultrasound_Scan | Circa 2012 | © Nevit Dilmen [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons
Minnesota struck down a law Wednesday requiring doctors to ask women seeking abortions if they want to see the pictures of their baby from an ultrasound before following through with the abortion.
The law “interferes with the doctor-patient relationship, legislating the private conversations that occur about a legal medical procedure,” Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota said Wednesday, explaining why he vetoed the legislation, according to the Star Tribune. He added that abortion doctors are already providing women with a breadth of information including the risks of the procedure, and that they do not need to go further by asking women if they would like to view ultrasound images.
His veto came after the Minnesota House passed the bill on May 10 79-48.
Minnesota Medical Association and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also opposed the law, according to Dayton.
Minnesota joins Kentucky and a long list of states that prohibit abortion doctors from requiring women to undergo ultrasounds 24 hours prior to having an abortion. Judge David Hale overturned Kentucky’s law requiring doctors to conduct an ultrasound and show the expectant mother images of the unborn child — enacted in January — on grounds that it violated the First Amendment, according to CNN.
Only 26 out of 50 states have ultrasound requirements prior to abortion.
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