North Dakota’s only abortion clinic joined with the American Medical Association to file a federal suit to undo two state anti-abortion laws on the grounds that they interfere with doctors’ free-speech rights.
Red River Women’s Clinic, a Fargo abortion clinic, in partnership with the AMA and the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in the suit filed Tuesday that the abortion regulations are unconstitutional because they force doctors to mislead their patients, violating the First Amendment, by saying that abortion drugs can be reversed and that abortion ends the life of a human being.
“The patient-physician relationship is the cornerstone of healthcare and depends upon honest, open conversations about all of a patient’s health care options,” said Dr. Patrice A. Harris, president of the AMA. “North Dakota’s law undermines this relationship by requiring physicians to mislead and misinform their patients with messages that contradict reality and science.”
One law, which has yet to go into effect, would require abortion providers to tell women seeking abortions that it may be possible to reverse the effects of the abortion-inducing drug. The FDA has not evaluated whether reversing the effects of the drug is possible. North Dakota is 1 of 8 states to have passed or amended laws requiring doctors to tell their patients that an abortion can be reversed.
The second law requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure “will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”
The complaint says the statement is “ideologically contrived” and “deviates from medical definition.”
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that the laws limit doctors’ rights to free speech and violate the Hippocratic Oath taken by all doctors.
“Lawmakers are forcing falsehoods and propaganda into the mouths of physicians against their will, effectively forcing them to violate their ethical obligation to do no harm,” Northup said.
