A North Carolina law requiring abortion providers to not only conduct an ultrasound but describe its content in detail to women seeking an abortion — whether or not they have asked for or want to receive an ultrasound — was blocked on Monday, December 22, by the Fourth Circuit court of appeals.
The law was preliminarily blocked in October 2011 and also deemed unconstitutional by a federal court in January 2014.
In its ruling, the Fourth Circuit determined that the law prohibits a physician’s right to free speech by mandating what conversations doctors are required to have with their patients, “while simultaneously threatening harm to the patient’s psychological health, interfering with the physician’s professional judgment, and compromising the doctor-patient relationship.”
