Statement from Dr. LeRoy Carhart on Planned Parenthood Challenge to Nebraska Abortion Law
(PRESS RELEASE) Today, Planned Parenthood filed a legal challenge to an abortion restriction which requires doctors to perform extensive screenings of women for any “risk factors” before providing an abortion. Under the measure, doctors would have to screen for “risk factors” for post-abortion complications based on an almost limitless range of information published in medical studies. These studies often reach contested, ambiguous or incomplete conclusions, but the law does not provide doctors any guidance about how to evaluate which of the findings to include when they screen patients. Dr. LeRoy Carhart issued this statement in response:
“The Nebraska legislature recently passed LB 594, yet another piece of anti-choice legislation that does nothing but hinder a woman’s access to safe, legal abortion care. The legislature is so consumed with pandering to the anti-choice lobby they have passed legislation that is vague and ambiguous and values the legislature’s words over the expertise and medical judgment of a physician.
“Abortion is a decision that should be left to a woman and her physician. We trust women to make the best decision and to know what’s best for their health, and their bodies. LB 594 does nothing to protect women, their health or provide any actual protections under the law. I commend this law being challenged, hopefully the courts will see through this latest attempt by anti-choice politicians to suppress women’s rights by legislating their reproductive choices. “