RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal appeals court Monday ruled that a North Carolina abortion law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and describe sonogram images to women is unconstitutional because it violates free speech rights.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., struck down a 2011 law passed by a Republican-dominated Legislature. The panel upheld a federal judge’s ruling that doctors cannot be compelled to deliver the anti-abortion views of lawmakers.
A provision in the Women’s Right to Know Act requires doctors to display sonogram images of fetuses and to describe them to women at least four hours before an abortion procedure.
“Transforming the physician into the mouthpiece of the state undermines the trust that is necessary for facilitating healthy doctor-patient relationships and, through them, successful treatment outcomes,” the three-judge panel wrote.
The judges ruled that the law’s requirements constitute “compelled speech” that is “ideological in intent and in kind.” They said the law goes far beyond legislation in other states designed to ensure women give informed consent to abortion.