Abortion-rights group may challenge ruling

INDIANAPOLIS -- An abortion-rights group is considering challenging an appeals court ruling that Indiana's law requiring women to get in-person counseling before an abortion is constitutional.\nBetty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Indiana, said the group is reviewing the ruling to decide whether to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.\n"As we've said all along, those waiting periods are very burdensome," Cockrum said Tuesday. "My greatest emphasis is how difficult an abortion is for any woman who is faced with it. It is not a frivolous undertaking on any woman's part, and to the extent that you add to that burden, it's a problem."\nElizabeth Cavendish, legal director at the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said she hopes a hearing of the case by the Supreme Court would recognize the difficulty of making multiple visits to an abortion clinic.\n"The Indiana Legislature does not trust Indiana's women to make decisions for themselves and neither does the 7th Circuit," she said.\nPart of the 1995 law requires abortion clinics to give women information about alternatives to abortion in the presence of a physician or nurse 18 hours before the abortion is scheduled to be performed.\nOpponents of the law had argued that it forced women to make two trips to a clinic before they could get an abortion, placing a burden on their constitutional right to end a pregnancy.\nU.S. District Judge David Hamilton agreed in March 2001, striking down that part of the law.\nThe 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed that decision 2-1 Monday, saying women in Indiana do not face an obstacle in visiting a clinic twice, in part because the law has an emergency clause to cover any kind of physical or psychological risk to the woman.\nMike Fichter, executive director of Indiana Right To Life, called the ruling a major victory for women.\n"The information required by Indiana's law is basic common-sense information that any woman seeking an abortion has a right to know, and there's no other way to deliver this information properly than by face-to-face interaction," Fichter said in a statement.\nThe ruling will have the greatest effect on women with lower incomes, said Ann Stone, national chairwoman of Republicans for Choice.\n"Abortion providers are pretty scarce in some parts of the country and sometimes women have to travel for as long as a day to get the procedure," she said. "And to have to get in-person counseling could mean extra time they can't afford"