Federal court holds first live evidentiary hearing on mandatory delay since Casey

Four days beginning on June 20, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds heard testimony and argument in Northland Family Planning, Inc. vs. Engler, a challenge to Michigan's 1993 mandatory 24-hour delay and biased counseling law. Scheduled to take effect on April 1, the statute was temporarily blocked by Judge Edmunds on March 18--eight days after two dozen women's health care providers and advocates filed suite (see RFN III/5). The hearing this week on plaintiff's request for a preliminary injunction marked the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey that Witnesses have appeared in federal court to testify about the likely impact of such a measure. In the wake of Casey, an abortion restriction is unconstitutional if it poses an "undue burden" on a woman's right to choose abortion. Nationally renowned experts and clinic directors testified this week that the Michigan law is unnecessary to ensure informed consent for abortions and will particularly disadvantage battered women, rape and incest survivors, women carrying anomalous fetuses, and women who need abortions for severe medical and psychological conditions. CRLP attorneys Eve Gartner and Priscilla Smith represented plaintiffs during the hearing. Mandatory delay and biased counseling laws are currently in effect in Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah; only Mississippi requires women to travel twice to a women's health care provider: once for the mandated information and a second time at least 24 hours later for the abortion.