Ultrasound law upheld

Richard A. Sokerka

Earlier last year, legislators in Kentucky passed “The Ultra­sound Informed Consent Act.” It requires abortion doctors to present and describe an ultrasound image of an unborn child to a mother seeking an abortion, along with having to play audio of the baby’s heartbeat. Then-Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed the bill into law.

Under the legislation, the mother would have the option of refusing to look at the ultrasound image and requesting that the audio of the baby’s heartbeat be muted.

The state’s Catholic bishops fully supported Kentucky’s law, praising its intent “to ensure women have access to unbiased and medically sound information about abortion procedures and the unborn child in the womb before making an irreversible decision to have an abortion.”

Pro-abortion organizations appealed the law but it was upheld by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. It was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and just before Christmas, the Supreme Court justices declined to take up a challenge to the law, leaving in place the Sixth Circuit’s decision.

Circuit judge John K. Bush wrote the Sixth Circuit’s opinion, “The information conveyed by an ultrasound image, its description and the audible beating fetal heart gives a patient greater knowledge of the unborn life inside her,” he wrote, adding that “this information might persuade a woman to change her mind but does not render it suspect under the First Amendment.”

As long as laws such as Kentucky’s required doctors to give information that is “truthful, non-misleading, and relevant to an abortion,” they do not violate the doctor’s First Amendment rights, Judge Bush wrote.

According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, three states require doctors to show and describe ultrasounds to the mother seeking an abortion; 11 states require the doctor to perform an ultrasound. During 2020, it is our hope that we see more and more state legislatures passing laws similar to what Kentucky’s elected representatives did. If they do, it would guarantee a huge drop in the number of abortions performed in our nation.