FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org In Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England et al., the Court
will consider whether abortion restrictions must include protections for women's
health and whether courts can strike down dangerous restrictions that doctors say will harm their patients
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood
Federation of America (PPFA) today urged the U.S. Supreme Court in Ayotte v.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, et al. to protect women’s health and
the ability to stop anti-abortion laws that doctors believe will harm their
patients.
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“If the Court accepts the government’s arguments in this case, it will give a
green light to states to pass abortion restrictions that will harm women’s
health in medical emergencies,” said Jennifer Dalven, Deputy Director of the
ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, and the attorney who argued before the
Court today. “We are hopeful that the Court will recognize the importance of
protecting women’s health and access to safe, legal abortion and rule in our
favor.”
The case began as a challenge to a New Hampshire law that prevents doctors
from performing an abortion for a teenager under the age of 18 until 48 hours
after a parent has been notified. Contrary to 30 years of Supreme Court
precedent, the law contains no medical emergency exception to protect a pregnant
teenager’s health. The lower courts struck down the law because of this
omission.
Karen Pearl, interim president of PPFA, warned of the potential repercussions
that this case could have on women’s health. “The government is actually urging
the Supreme Court to take the dangerous step of forbidding doctors from putting
their patient’s health first,” Pearl said. “Government should not be the judge
of when doctors can and cannot treat their patients.”
The groups warned that a decision in Ayotte could reach far beyond New
Hampshire, effectively eliminating -- for both teens and adults -- the requirement
that abortion laws must include protections for women’s health.
New Hampshire abortion clinics and providers who brought the legal challenge
are Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Concord Feminist Health
Center, the Feminist Health Center of Portsmouth, and Wayne Goldner, M.D.
Attorneys for the respondents include Dalven, Steven R. Shapiro, Louise
Melling, Talcott Camp, Corinne Schiff, Brigitte Amiri, and Diana Kasdan of the
ACLU; Dara Klassel of Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Martin P.
Honigberg of Sulloway & Hollis, PLLC; and Lawrence Vogelman, of Nixon Raiche
Manning Vogelman & Leach, PA and legal director of the New Hampshire Civil
Liberties Union.
For more information, go to: www.ayottevplannedparenthood.org
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Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's leading sexual and
reproductive health care advocate and provider. We believe that everyone has the
right to choose when or whether to have a child, and that every child should be
wanted and loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate more than 850 health
centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for
millions of women, men, and teenagers each year. We also work with allies
worldwide to ensure that all women and men have the right and the means to meet
their sexual and reproductive health care needs.
The ACLU is our nation's guardian of liberty, working daily in courts,
legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and
liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and
laws of the United States.
