Federal Judge Says N.C. Ultrasound Abortion Law Is Illegal 17JAN14

AS ignorant as their state legislators are, there is still hope for North Carolina as long as there are judges like US Dist Judge Catherine Eagles on the bench. I suggest the N Carolina legislature consider the hypocrisy of their claim of being pro life and adequately fund the social safety net, education, unemployment benefits, and job training and stimulus programs that provide for and benefit the children and their families and the lives of all North Carolinians. Take action to improve the lives of the people of North Carolina and you will see a dramatic reduction in the number of abortions in your state. From NPR....

by Bill Chappell

January 17, 2014 6:29 PM

A controversial North Carolina law requiring women who want to have an abortion to undergo an ultrasound scan is illegal, according to a federal judge's ruling issued Friday. The state's law required that the women have a medical professional tell them what the image depicts. It also said the women should "listen to the heartbeat of the unborn child."
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles issued her ruling in Greensboro, N.C., where the reports the judge "called the law 'overbroad,' and said it didn't sufficiently protect women who didn't want to be exposed to that information."
After the law took effect in 2011, Eagles issued an injunction that blocked the ultrasound requirement, citing reservations over enlisting medical providers to deliver a "non-medical message to patients unwilling to hear or see," as North Carolina's reported.
The judge echoed those ideas in today's ruling.
"It is an impermissible attempt to compel these providers to deliver the state's message in favor of childbirth and against abortion," Eagles said, according to the News Observer.
Titled the , the law was linked to controversy from its early days. After lawmakers initially approved it in 2011, the law was vetoed by Gov. Bev Purdue. But the two chambers of North Carolina's Republican-led Assembly voted to overrule the veto.
From the AP:

"Eagles had put the law on hold a few months after the Republican-led state legislature passed the law in 2011. She said then that providers did not have to place an ultrasound image next to a pregnant woman so she can view it, describe its features and offer the patient the chance to listen to the heartbeat."

News of Eagles' decision was — Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/17/263512721/federal-judge-says-n-c-ultrasound-abortion-law-is-illegal?ft=1&f=1014