Sentencia C-355/06 EXCEPCION DE PLEITO PENDIENTE-No ...

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Algunos principios orientadores han de emerger. Lo que se encuentra en
juego es el derecho de la mujer a tomar una decisión final, no el derecho
a ser aislada de los demás al tomar dicha decisión. Las regulaciones que
no hacen mas que crear un mecanismo estructurado por medio del cual el
Estado, o el padre o el guardián de un menor, puedan expresar un
profundo respeto por la vida de un no nacido son permitidas, si no son un
obstáculo sustancial al ejercicio del derecho de la mujer a escoger. A
menos que tenga un efecto en su derecho a escoger, una medida estatal
diseñada para persuadir a la mujer para que escoja la continuación del
embarazo, en lugar del aborto, será válida si se encuentra razonablemente
relacionada con ese fin. Las regulaciones diseñadas para proteger la salud
de una mujer que busca un aborto son validas si no constituyen una carga
indebida. 252
252 Corte Suprema de Justicia, Estados Unidos. Planned Parenthood v. Casey 505 US 833, 192.
Votación: 5-4. Magistrados Ponentes: O`Connor, Kennedy, Souter. (Aclaraciones y salvamentos de
voto: Stevens, Blackmun, Renquist, White). Texto original: “Roe v. Wade was express in its
recognition of the State's important and legitimate interest[s] in preserving and protecting [505 U.S.
833, 876] the health of the pregnant woman [and] in protecting the potentiality of human life. 410
U.S., at 162. The trimester framework, however, does not fulfill Roe's own promise that the State has
an interest in protecting fetal life or potential life. Roe began the contradiction by using the trimester
framework to forbid any regulation of abortion designed to advance that interest before viability. Id.,
at 163. Before viability, Roe and subsequent cases treat all governmental attempts to influence a
woman's decision on behalf of the potential life within her as unwarranted. This treatment is, in our
judgment, incompatible with the recognition that there is a substantial state interest in potential life
throughout pregnancy. Cf. Webster, 492 U.S., at 519 (opinion of REHNQUIST, C.J.); Akron I, supra,
462 U.S., at 461 (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting).
The very notion that the State has a substantial interest in potential life leads to the conclusion that
not all regulations must be deemed unwarranted. Not all burdens on the right to decide whether to
terminate a pregnancy will be undue. In our view, the undue burden standard is the appropriate
means of reconciling the State's interest with the woman's constitutionally protected liberty.
A finding of an undue burden is a shorthand for the conclusion that a state regulation has the purpose
or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable
fetus. A statute with this purpose is invalid because the means chosen by the State to further the
interest in potential life must be calculated to inform the woman's free choice, not hinder it. And a
statute which, while furthering the interest in potential life or some other valid state interest, has the
effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman's choice cannot be considered a
permissible means of serving its legitimate ends.
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Some guiding principles should emerge. What is at stake is the woman's right to make the ultimate
decision, not a right to be insulated from all others in doing so. Regulations which do no more than
create a structural mechanism by which the State, or the parent or guardian of a minor, may express
profound respect for the life of the unborn are permitted, if they are not a substantial obstacle to the
woman's exercise of the right to choose. See infra, at 899-900 (addressing Pennsylvania's parental
consent requirement). [505 U.S. 833, 878] Unless it has that effect on her right of choice, a state
measure designed to persuade her to choose childbirth over abortion will be upheld if reasonably
related to that goal. Regulations designed to foster the health of a woman seeking an abortion are
valid if they do not constitute an undue burden.”