Sioux Falls, S.D., Jul 24, 2008 / 15:22 pm
During what one pro-life advocate called “a great week in South Dakota for unborn children,” a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has apparently closed. The abortion provider on the other hand, disputes the alleged closure.
Local pro-lifers believe that the clinic has closed its doors because it refuses to comply with a state informed consent law upheld by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals last month.
The South Dakota law requires any physician who performs an abortion to obtain “voluntary and informed written consent” from a woman seeking an abortion, except in cases of medical emergency. The woman must also be provided with information about the health risks and legal consequences of the procedure.
The information the woman must be provided includes the knowledge “that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." She must also be told that she "has an existing relationship with that unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota.” Further, she must be informed “that by having an abortion, her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated.”