Missouri Federal Court Upholds Pro-Life Law
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – On Wednesday a federal appeals court in Missouri upheld a state law requiring abortion clinics to give their clients a booklet stating that abortion will end the life of a separate human being, Christian Headlines (CH) reports. The case was originally brought by a member of “The Satanic Temple” who said the law violated her religious beliefs and Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.
The Missouri law provides that women seeking abortion must be given a booklet which explains that: “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.” The booklet also has illustrations of the unborn baby at every two weeks of development. Women are not required to read it.
Referred to as “Judy Doe” in court documents, the plaintiff was pregnant when she filed suit against the Missouri law, claiming the “Human Tissue she was carrying was “part of her body,” CH reported.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member conservative judicial panel ruled that the law does not violate the US Constitution. “A state does not establish religion by passing a law that just ‘happens to coincide or harmonize with the tenets of some or all religions,’” Judge David R. Stras wrote.
The judges also pointed to laws on informed consent, referencing the US Supreme Court case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) in which it was held that informed consent laws serve “the legitimate purpose of reducing the risk that a woman may elect an abortion, only to discover later, with devastating psychological consequences, that her decision was not fully informed.”
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