Kaiser Updates

The New Jersey Supreme Court recently agreed without comment to hear an appeal of a decision that a jury can consider whether a doctor gave adequate medical information to a woman who claims she was unable to give informed consent to undergo an abortion, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. According to court papers, physician Sheldon Turkish in 1996 told Rosa Acuna, who was eight weeks pregnant, that she had to undergo an "immediate abortion" because her pregnancy was causing damage to her kidneys. Acuna charges that Turkish "incorrectly told [her] ... that she was not aborting a human life" when she underwent the procedure, adding that she has experienced psychological trauma, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosexual dysfunction, as a result of the abortion. A trial judge previously had dismissed the case, stating that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a "fetus is not a person," but an appellate court ruled that Acuna could sue for damages involving "a question of medical malpractice." Appellate Court Judge Ariel Rodriques, writing for the three-judge panel, added, "Obviously, the term 'baby' meant something different to Acuna and Turkish. For her, it meant an embryo or fetus; for the doctor, a human being following birth.

My question is: what did she think she was pregnant with, a fish fetus?

South Dakota gears up for the battle ahead. The group South Dakotans for 1215/VoteYesForLife.com on Wednesday launched its efforts to gain voter support for a November statewide ballot initiative that will decide whether a law (HB 1215) banning abortion in the state except to save a woman's life can take effect, Reuters reports. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a coalition of opponents of the ban, successfully blocked the July 1 enactment of the abortion law by gathering enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. "We're all about life, helping women and helping babies," Leslie Unruh, VoteYesForLife's leader, said, adding, "Abortion hurts women, abortion denies us our relationship with our child. ... All of us have a reason for being born." According to Reuters, both VoteYesForLife and Healthy Families said over the next few months they expect the campaigns to be aggressive and to use media and "on-the-ground campaigning" to spread their messages.