EveryBody's Guide to the Law

In June 2000, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law that prohibited
late stage abortions. The Supreme Court held that the Nebraska law prohibiting abortions
in which part of the fetus is pulled outside of the womb did not make any exception for
the preservation of the mother’s health. The high court also ruled that the law imposed an
undue burden on a woman’s right to choose a “D&E” (dilation and evacuation) abortion,
thereby unduly burdening the woman’s right to choose abortion itself.
Can the father of the fetus sue to prevent the woman from having an abortion? No. The
choice to terminate the pregnancy is the woman’s, and hers alone. Laws that require a married
woman to tell her husband that she is going to have an abortion have been held unconstitutional.
Laws that require the woman to wait twenty-four hours before having an abortion and
to be given “truthful, non-misleading information about the procedure, the attendant health
risks and those of childbirth, and the probable gestational age of the fetus,” have been held
constitutional.
Does a minor (a girl under 18 in most states, under 19 in a few) need the permission of her
parents to get an abortion? In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that parental consent is
not needed if the girl is old enough to understand the consequences of the abortion and can
weigh the issues reasonably well. But if the girl is too immature, parental consent or court
approval may be required. A law that requires a pregnant minor to obtain the consent of one
or both of her parents to get an abortion but has no provision for judicial permission is unconstitutional.
A minor has the right to seek judicial consent if her parents refuse to permit the
abortion. Or the girl may bypass her parents altogether and go straight to a judge for permission
to get an abortion.
The Abortion Pill
In late September 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the
controversial abortion pill RU486, which gives women the option of ending early stage pregnancies
with drugs instead of through surgery. The FDA approved use of the drug, marketed
under the name Mifeprex (or mifepristone, its scientific name), through the first seven weeks
of pregnancy. However, some doctors have stated that they will use the drug through the ninth
week of pregnancy.
Mifeprex works by blocking the uterus from receiving the hormone progesterone, which
prepares the uterine lining so that an embryo can implant itself and grow. The lining nourishes
and maintains the development of the fertilized egg. Without the progesterone, the uterine
lining breaks down and bleeds away. A second drug, misoprostol (already available as an
anti-ulcer medication) is given two days later, which causes the uterus to contract and flush
out the fertilized egg.
Use of the abortion pill is not a simple “take one time with a glass of water” procedure. The
woman will have to make at least three trips to a doctor’s office or clinic over two weeks. At
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