Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Introduction
Plaintiffs, Planned Parenthood of Indiana, Inc., Dr. Michael King, M.D., Carla
Cleary, C.N.M., Letitia Clemons, and Dejiona Jackson, by her guardian and next friend
House Enrolled Act 1210. Specifically, plaintiffs ask this Court to enjoin the provisions
of the law that defund entities that perform abortions or maintain or operate facilities
where abortions are performed, Indiana Code § 5-22-17-5.5, and that require a pregnant
woman seeking an abortion to be informed that “human physical life begins when a
that “objective scientific information shows that a fetus can feel pain at or before (20)
precedent, plaintiffs have the burden of establishing the following five factors:
(2) that they will suffer irreparable harm if the preliminary injunction
is not issued pending the resolution of the substantive action;
(3) that the irreparable harm they will suffer if the preliminary
injunction is not granted outweighs the irreparable harm the defendants will
suffer if the injunction is granted;
(5) that the injunction will not hurt the public interest.
Manbourne, Inc. v. Conrad, 796 F.2d 884, 887 (7th Cir. 1986).
In this memorandum, amici curiae, members of the Indiana General Assembly (the
names of the amici are attached to this memorandum) address the fourth requirement for
plaintiffs prevailing on the merits at trial with respect to their challenge to Indiana Code
2-1.1(a)(1)(G) and all other matters not discussed herein (e.g., whether plaintiffs have
established the other factors necessary to warrant preliminary injunctive relief and
whether the funding restrictions conflict with or are preempted by federal law), amici
2
I.
Indiana House Enrolled Act 1210 adds a new section to the Indiana Code, § 5-22-
(a) This section does not apply to hospitals licensed under IC 16-21-
2 or ambulatory surgical centers licensed under IC 16-21-2.
to pay for a contract with or grant made to any entity that performs
abortions or maintains or operates a facility where abortions are performed
is canceled, and the money appropriated is not available for payment of any
contract with or grant made to the entity that performs abortions or
maintains or operates a facility where abortions are performed.
3
(d) For any contract with or grant made to an entity that performs
abortions or maintains or operates a facility where abortions are performed
covered under subsection (b), the budge agency shall make a determination
that funds are not available, and the contract or grant shall be terminated
under section 5 of this chapter.
performing abortions or receiving the non-abortion related funding, the statute imposes an
perform abortions, and that if such a right exists, it is derivative of the rights of their
pregnant women patients. Plaintiffs, however, have neither alleged nor proved that the
funding restrictions in § 5-22-17-5.5 would interfere with the ability of pregnant women
abortions have not been violated, neither has the asserted right of their providers.
The Supreme Court has held that “[n]either Congress nor the states may condition
Parenthood of Mid-Missouri & Eastern Kansas, Inc. v. Dempsey, 167 F.3d 458, 461 (8th
Cir. 1999) (citing Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 597 (1972) (free speech); Shapiro
v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 634 (1969) (right to travel), and Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S.
513, 518-19 (1958) (free speech). The rationale underlying the “unconstitutional
condition” doctrine “is premised on the notion that what a government cannot compel it
should not be able to coerce.” Libertarian Party of Indiana v. Packard, 741 F.2d 981,
4
988 (7th Cir. 1984). “[I]f the government could deny a benefit to a person because of his
effect be penalized and inhibited. This would allow the government to produce a result
which [it] could not command directly.” Perry, 408 U.S. at 597 (citation and internal
quotation marks omitted). “[F]unding classifications that interfere with the exercise of
Dempsey, 167 F.3d at 461 (quoting Thompson, 394 U.S. at 634) (emphasis in Dempsey).
physicians (and other health care professionals) have a constitutional right to perform
abortions.1 But as plaintiffs themselves admit (Memorandum at 23), the Supreme Court
has never expressly held that abortion providers have such a right. See Singleton v. Wulff,
428 U.S. 106, 113 (1976) (plurality) (declining to decide whether a physician has “a
1
That distinguishes this case from the “unconstitutional condition” argument raised in
Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173, 192-200 (1991), which was based on the First Amendment free
speech rights of Title X grantees, and a similar argument advanced in Planned Parenthood of
Central & Northern Arizona v. Arizona, 718 F.2d 938, 942-46 (9th Cir. 1983), both cited by
plaintiffs (Memorandum at 25-26 & n. 12). Section 5-22-17-5.5 does not implicate the free
speech rights of abortion providers and plaintiffs do not contend otherwise.
2
The plurality in Singleton concluded that “it generally is appropriate to allow a physician
to assert the rights of women patients as against governmental interference with the abortion
decision . . . .” 428 U.S. at 118. Conferring third-party standing on physicians to represent the
constitutional rights of their patients, however, is analytically distinct from whether the
physicians themselves have a constitutional right to perform abortions.
5
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 884 (1992) (plurality).
Even assuming, however, that physicians (or other health care professionals) have
a constitutional right to perform abortions, that right is not independent of the pregnant
woman’s rights, but is derived from and dependent upon her right to obtain an abortion.
See Casey, 505 U.S. at 884 (“[w]hatever constitutional status the doctor-patient relation
may have as a general matter, in the present context it is derivative of the woman’s
position”). See also Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297, 318 n. 21 (1980) (“the constitutional
broader than that of his patient”); Dempsey, 167 F.3d at 464 (“[a]ny constitutional right of
right to choose abortion”) (citing Casey). Plaintiffs, however, have neither alleged nor
proved that § 5-22-17-5.5 burdens or otherwise interferes with the constitutional right of
federal funds administered by the State from performing abortions “would have at most
an extremely attenuated effect upon the availability of abortion services,” Dempsey, 167
F.3d at 465, the asserted right of abortion providers to perform abortions, which is
condition” argument. The difference between restrictions placed upon abortion providers
and those placed upon abortion patients distinguishes the statute at issue here from the
6
hypothetical one discussed in Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. at 317 n. 19 (“[a] substantial
constitutional question would arise if Congress had attempted to withhold all Medicaid
benefits from an otherwise eligible candidate simply because the candidate exercised her
Parenthood of Central & Northern Arizona v. Arizona, the Ninth Circuit assumed that
Planned Parenthood had a constitutional right “to engage in abortion,” 718 F.2d at 944,
without engaging in any analysis of the issue and without recognizing that any such right,
the Eighth Circuit held that to interpret state law to prohibit abortion providers from
receiving state family planning funds without allowing them to establish affiliates that
would be eligible for such funds would “cross the line” established in Rust v. Sullivan,
F.C.C. v. League of Women Voters, 468 U.S. 364, 400 (1984), and Regan v. Taxation
With Representation, 461 U.S. 540 (1983). 167 F.3d at 463.4 All three cases, however,
3
It is also distinct from the hypothetical raised in Webster v. Reproductive Health
Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989). In rejecting a challenge to a state law that prohibited abortions
from being performed in publicly owned and operated facilities, the Court expressed the view
that “[t]his case might . . . be different if the State barred doctors who performed abortions in
private facilities from the use of public facilities for any purpose.” Id. at 510 n. 8. Section 5-22-
17-5.5, of course, does no such thing. Moreover, nothing in § 5-22-17-5.5 disqualifies from state
and federal programs any entity that employs or contracts with a physician who, outside the
scope of his employment or contract, performs abortions, so long as the entity itself does not
perform abortions or maintain or operate a facility where abortions are performed.
4
Amici, it should be emphasized, do not argue that § 5-22-17-5.5 does not permit the
creation of affiliates that would qualify for state and federal funds administered by the State of
Indiana, but only that such affiliation is not necessary in order to uphold the statute.
7
editorializing (League of Women Voters) and lobbying (Regan), which § 5-22-17-5.5 does
not restrict. To the extent that Dempsey suggests that abortion providers have a constitutional
Finally, plaintiffs cite the federal district court’s decision in Planned Parenthood
of Central Texas v. Sanchez, 280 F. Supp.2d 590, 608 (W.D. Tex. 2003), which held,
inter alia, that “abortion providers have some constitutionally-protected right, derived
from their patients’ rights, to perform the services that are necessary to enable women to
exercise their own constitutional rights.” Because the appropriation rider at issue in
Sanchez “withholds funding from the Plaintiffs because they engage in a constitutionally
district court’s judgment was remanded with directions. Planned Parenthood of Houston
and Southeast Texas v. Sanchez, 403 F.3d 324 (5th Cir. 2005). The court of appeals
determined that the appropriation rider did not foreclose the creation of affiliates which,
depending upon how they were structured, could largely obviate the preemption issue that
had been raised and decided adversely to the State in the lower court. Id. at 335-43.5
Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas v. Sanchez, 403 F.3d 324 (5th Cir.
2005). Although the Fifth Circuit did not expressly address the merits of the district
5
The Fifth Circuit’s opinion–holding that the availability of an affiliation option was
critical to any decision upholding the rider against a preemption challenge–was limited to Title
X, 403 F.3d at 338 n. 68, which, as plaintiffs concede (Memorandum at 7), is not at issue here.
8
proceedings (in which all issues on the merits were resolved), in a later appeal from the
denial of attorney fees the court of appeals noted that “[b]y remanding the entire case to
the district court with instructions to dissolve the injunction, . . . we implicitly rejected
that claim as well.” Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas v. Sanchez,
480 F.3d 734, 742 (5th Cir. 2007). In view of this clarification, plaintiffs’ reliance on the
constitutional right to perform abortions, much less that such a right is independent of the
right to perform abortions, it necessarily derives from the rights of women to obtain
abortions or receiving the non-abortion related funding,” Complaint at 11, § 53, would
have no effect on the availability of abortion services (and plaintiffs do not contend
condition” on abortion providers, whose rights, to the extent they exist, are subordinate to
those of their patients. Because plaintiffs have not shown that they have a reasonable
be denied.
9
II.
1210, consent to an abortion is “voluntary and informed” only if, at least eighteen hours
before the abortion is performed and in the presence of the pregnant woman, the attending
physician, the referring physician or other authorized and qualified person (physician
assistant, advanced practice nurse or midwife) has informed the pregnant woman orally
and in writing, inter alia, that “human physical life begins when a human ovum is
this requirement violates the First Amendment free speech rights of physicians and other
health care professionals because it compels them to express an ideological view with
which they do not agree. Complaint at 13-15. ¶¶ 66-73, 76; Memorandum at 30-33; King
requires physicians or other authorized and qualified health care professionals to provide
their pregnant women patients with scientifically and medically accurate information that
could be relevant to their decision whether to have an abortion. Such a requirement does
not violate the free speech rights of physicians and other health care professionals.
10
In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), the Supreme Court held
that “a requirement that a doctor give a woman certain information as part of obtaining
her consent to an abortion” implicates a physician’s First Amendment right not to speak,
id. at 884, citing Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705 (1977), “but only as part of the
practice of medicine, subject to reasonable licensing and regulation by the State.” Casey,
505 U.S. at 884. The Court found no violation of the physician’s right not to speak where
The Supreme Court has determined that relevant information (in the abortion
context) is not limited to the medical risks of the procedure, but includes information
regarding “the nature of the procedure,” the “probable gestational age” of the fetus, a
description of the fetus and “the consequences to the fetus,” Casey, 505 U.S. at 881-82,6
as well as “information concerning the way in which the fetus will be killed,” Gonzales
v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 159 (2007), all of which may legitimately and constitutionally
influence the woman’s decision whether or not to undergo an abortion. Casey, 505 U.S.
at 882-83; Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 159-60. Apropos of the issue before this Court, the
6
The materials that had to be made available to the pregnant woman in Casey included a
description “of the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics of the unborn child at
two-week gestational increments, and any relevant information on the possibility of the unborn
child’s survival,” and a description of “the methods of abortion procedures commonly employed,
the medical risks commonly associated with each such procedure, the possible detrimental
psychological effects of abortion and the medical risks commonly associated with each such
procedure and the medical risks commonly associated with carrying a child to term.” 505 U.S. at
908-09 (Appendix to Joint Opinion).
11
Eighth Circuit has explained, “Casey and Gonzales establish that, while the State cannot
compel an individual to speak the State’s ideological message, it can use its regulatory
to a patient’s decision to have an abortion, even if that information might also encourage
the patient to choose childbirth over abortion.” Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North
Dakota, South Dakota v. Rounds, 530 F.3d 724, 734-35 (8th Cir. 2008) (en banc). That is
genus Homo and particularly of the species H[omo] sapiens.” M OSBY’S D ICTIONARY OF
M EDICINE, N URSING & H EALTH P ROFESSIONS 903 (7th ed. 2006). “Physical,” another
medical dictionary explains, means “[r]elating to the body, as distinguished from the
mind.” S TEDMAN’S M EDICAL D ICTIONARY FOR THE H EALTH P ROFESSIONS & N URSING
1207 (Illustrated Sixth Edition 2008). See also D ORLAND’S ILLUSTRATED M EDICAL
D ICTIONARY 1464 (31st ed. 2007) (“pertaining to the body”). Finally, “life” is defined as
“the quality or condition proper to living beings: the state of existence characterized by
pregnant woman to be informed that “human physical life begins when a human ovum is
fertilized by a human sperm” she is simply being informed that, in physical (i.e.,
12
biological) terms, human life begins with fertilization. Contrary to plaintiffs’ strained and
begins. As the leading English language dictionary used by the Supreme Court states,
“physical” means “of or relating to the body,” “of or relating to natural or material things
Section 16-34-2-1.1(a)(1)(E) states that the physical life of every human begins
life, in physical (i.e., biological) terms, begins with the fertilization of a human ovum by a
human sperm is supported by a wealth of scientific and medical evidence, including many
standard embryology and physiology texts. See, e.g., Keith L. Moore and T.V.N.
2008) (“[h]uman development is a continuous process that begins when an oocyte (ovum)
development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm unites with a female
gamete or oocyte to form a single cell, a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell
AND P HYSIOLOGY 1168 (18th ed. 2007) (“[t]he fertilized ovum . . . is genetically
13
complete; it represents the first cell of a genetically new individual”); M.J.T. Fitzgerald
commences at the moment of fertilization, and terminates at birth”); Ronan O’Rahilly and
Fabiola Muller, H UMAN E MBRYOLOGY & T ERATOLOGY 8 (3d ed. 1996) (“[a]lthough life
chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte”); Frank J. Dye,
H UMAN L IFE B EFORE B IRTH 53 (2000) (“[t]wo cells on the verge of death are the
two cells undergo fertilization, a new individual may result”) (bold in original); Wm.
Larsen, H UMAN E MBRYOLOGY 1 (3d ed. 2001) (“we begin our description of the
developing human with the formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells
new individual”) (bold in original); Richard E. Jones and Kristin H. Lopez, H UMAN
involves fusion of the nucleus of a male gamete (sperm) and a female gamete (ovum) to
& D EVELOPMENTAL B IOLOGY 3, 24, 32-40 (3d ed. 2004) (same). Given the scientific and
medical consensus that the physical life of every human begins with fertilization, it is not
surprising that neither of the plaintiffs’ experts on this issue cites a single scientific or
14
medical source to the contrary in his declaration. See Orentlicher Decl., ¶¶ 14-24; Silver
Decl. ¶¶ 11-25.
Both legislatures and courts have recognized the scientific and medical reality that
human physical (i.e., biological) life begins with fertilization. After reviewing many
human being begins at conception, the time when the process of fertilization is complete.”
158, the Human Life Bill, 97th Congress, 1st Sess, at 7 (1991). “Physicians, biologists,
and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human
being–of a being that is alive and a member of the human species.” Id. More recently, a
special task force created by the South Dakota Legislature found that “the new
recombinant DNA technologies indisputably prove that the unborn child is a whole
human being from the moment of fertilization . . . .” Report of the South Dakota Task
Only three years ago, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals considered the
advise a woman seeking an abortion that the procedure “will terminate the life of a whole,
separate, unique, living human being.” S.D. C ODIFIED L AWS § 34-23A-10.1(1)(b) (Supp.
15
2010). “Human being,” in turn, is defined as “an individual living member of the species
of Homo sapiens, including the unborn human being during the entire embryonic and
fetal ages from fertilization to full gestation.” Id. § 34-23A-1(4). The court of appeals
held that, taking into account the definition of “human being” set forth in § 34-23A-1(4),
Rounds, 530 F.3d at 737. Rather, the statute merely requires the physician “to disclose
7
Many courts have recognized that, in physical (i.e., biological) terms, human life begins
with conception (understood as fertilization). See, e.g., Bonbrest v. Kotz, 65 F.Supp 138, 140
(D. D.C. 1946) (“[f]rom the viewpoint of the civil law and the law of property, a child en ventre
sa mere is not only regarded as human being, but as such from the moment of conception– which
it is in fact”); Corkey v. Edwards, 322 F.Supp. 1248, 1252 (W.D.N.C. 1971) (“[b]iologically, a
living organism belonging to the species homo sapiens is created out of this organization
[referring to fertilization]”), vacated and remanded for further consideration in light of Roe v.
Wade, 410 U.S. 950 (1973); Steinberg v. Brown, 321 F.Supp. 741, 746 (N.D. 1970) (“a new life
comes into being with the union of human egg and sperm cells”); Wolfe v. Isbell, 280 So.2d 758,
761 (Ala. 1973) (“from the moment of conception, the fetus or embryo is not a part of the
mother, but rather has a separate existence within the body of the mother); Scott v. McPheeters,
92 P.2d 678, 681 (Cal. App. 1939) (it is “an established and recognized fact by science and by
everyone of understanding” that “an unborn child is a human being separate and distinct from its
mother”); Smith v. Brennan, 157 A.2d 497, 502 (N.J. 1960) (“[m]edical authorities have long
recognized that a child is in existence from the moment of conception, and not merely a part of
its mother’s body”); State v. Ausplund, 167 P. 1019, 1022-23 (Or. 1917) (“[w]hen a virile
spermatozoon unites with a fertile ovum in the uterus, conception is accomplished [and] a new
life has begun”); Amadio v. Levin, 501 A.2d 1085, 1087 (Pa. 1985) (“a child en ventre sa mere is
a separate individual from the moment of conception”); Sylvia v. Gobeille, 220 A.2d 222, 223-24
(R.I. 1966) (noting “the medical fact that a fetus becomes a living human being from the moment
of conception”); Leal v. C.C. Pitts Sand & Gravel, Inc. 413 S.W.2d 825, 828 (Tex. Civ. App.
1967) (Cadena, J., dissenting) (“medical science . . . consider[s] that life begins at conception”),
rev’d, 419 S.W.2d 820, 822 (Tex. 1967) (citing with approval Justice Cadena’s dissent). See
also Wm. L. Prosser, HANDBOOK OF THE LAW OF TORTS § 31, 189 (1941) (“medical authority
has recognized long since that the child is in existence from the moment of conception”).
16
None of the authorities cited by plaintiffs (Memorandum at 30-31) precludes the
State from requiring a pregnant woman seeking an abortion to be informed that “human
physical life” begins with fertilization. In Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 159 (1973), the
Court declined to resolve “the difficult question of when life begins,” in the absence of a
scientific and medical consensus, set forth above, that the physical (i.e., the biological)
In City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, Inc., 462 U.S. 416
(1983), overruled in part on other grounds, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833,
881-87 (1992), the Supreme Court struck down a provision in a municipal ordinance
requiring physicians to inform a pregnant woman seeking an abortion that “the unborn
child is a human being from the moment of conception.” A KRON C ODIFIED O RDINANCES,
ch. 1870, § 1870.06(B)(3). That requirement, the Court explained, is “inconsistent with
[our] holding in Roe v. Wade that a State may not adopt one theory of when life begins to
justify its regulation of abortions.” 462 U.S. at 444. The Court’s decision in City of
Akron is not controlling for two reasons: First, unlike the ordinance struck down in City
of Akron, § 16-34-2-1.1(a)(1)(E) refers to physical (i.e., biological) life, not whether “the
8
Neither of the two medical sources cited in Roe, 410 U.S. at 160 nn. 59-60, addressed
when human life, in biological terms, begins. See DORLAND ’S ILLUSTRATED MEDICAL
DICTIONARY 1689 (24th ed. 1965) (defining “viable” and “viability”); L. Hellman & J. Pritchard,
WILLIAMS OBSTETRICS 493 (14th ed. 1971) (same).
17
unborn human child is a human being” in some undefined philosophical or moral sense.
Second, the scope of the dictum in City of Akron was narrowed considerably in Webster v.
to a Missouri abortion law in which the legislature found, inter alia, that “[t]he life of
invalidating the preamble, the court of appeals relied upon the language quoted above
from City of Akron. Reproductive Health Services v. Webster, 851 F.2d 1071, 1075-76
The Court explained that the court of appeals had “misconceived the meaning of
the Akron dictum, which was only that a State could not ‘justify’ an abortion regulation
otherwise invalid under Roe v. Wade on the ground that it embodied the State’s view
about when life begins.” Webster, 492 U.S. at 506. In light of Webster, it is apparent that
the dictum in City of Akron means only that an otherwise unconstitutional abortion
when human life begins. City of Akron places no limitation on a State’s ability to declare
seeking an abortion) that the physical life of every human begins with fertilization.
Plaintiffs next cite Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In Casey, “the Supreme Court
repeatedly refers, when speaking of an embryo or fetus, to the State’s ‘interest in potential
18
life,’ scrupulously avoiding describing it as an existing human life.” Plaintiffs’
more than a dozen references in the Joint Opinion to the “life of the fetus,” “prenatal
life,” “the State’s interest in fetal life,” “the life of the unborn,” “the State’s interest in
[fetal] life,” “life,” “fetal life” and “the life of the child,” where the word “life,” in
referring to the unborn child, is not qualified with or limited by the adjective “potential.”
Casey, 505 U.S. at 846, 853, 860, 869, 870, 872, 873, 877, 881, 883, 885, 898. Similarly,
in Gonzales v. Carhart, also cited by plaintiffs (Memorandum at 30), the Supreme Court
frequently referred to “fetal life,” “the life of the fetus that may become a child,” “the life
of the unborn,” “the life within the woman,” “infant life” and “life” without using the
word “potential.” Carhart, 550 U.S. at 134, 145, 146, 157, 158, 159, 160, 163.
In Casey, the Supreme Court did not use the word “human” to describe the life of
the unborn child.9 In Carhart, however, the Court stated that the federal Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban Act “expresses respect for the dignity of human life,” 550 U.S. at 157
(emphasis added), and that Casey itself “confirms the State’s interest in promoting respect
for human life at all stages in the pregnancy.” Id. at 163 (emphasis added).10
9
If it is not human life, what kind of life is it? As the New York Court of Appeals
observed almost forty years ago, “It is human, if only because it may not be characterized as not
human, and it is unquestionably alive.” Byrn v. New York City Health & Hospitals Corp., 286
N.E.2d 887, 888 (N.Y. 1972), appeal dismissed, 410 U.S. 949 (1973).
10
On at least ten occasions in Carhart, the Court referred to acts during an abortion that
“kill” the fetus. 550 U.S. at 139, 140, 148, 151, 153, 154, 157, 159, 164. Except as a metaphor
(and the Court was not speaking in metaphors), one cannot “kill” what is not alive.
19
In Acuna v. Turkish, 930 A.2d 416, 427 (N.J. 2007), the last case cited by plaintiffs
(Memorandum at 30-31), the New Jersey Supreme Court expressly did not reach “the
constitutional arguments raised by defendants and amici who claim[ed] that it is both an
First Amendment free speech right to compel a physician to advise a pregnant woman that
child.” The court did not “resolve those arguments,” explaining that “we cannot find that
New Jersey’s common law imposes a legal duty on a physician to give the instructions
sought by plaintiff.” Id. (emphasis added). Nothing in the New Jersey Supreme Court’s
woman be told, before undergoing an abortion, that “human physical life” begins with
Plaintiffs complain that, “[c]oming from a physician,” “the statement that human
physical life begins at conception,” “presented as fact, carries significant weight for a
woman seeking an abortion, even if she did not previously share that belief.”
Memorandum at 32. But, for the reasons set forth above, the statement, properly
and qualified health care professional) to state that he or she agrees with the statement or
to present the statement as his or her own. Furthermore, whether, as plaintiffs suggest
20
(Memorandum at 32), “[a] reasonable person seeking an abortion is likely to be aware of
the moral significance the statement carries” has no bearing on its constitutionality.11
Finally, plaintiffs argue that “the statement that ‘human physical life begins when a
human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm’ is not at all relevant to the woman’s decision
to have an abortion.” Memorandum at 33. But that argument cannot be squared with
Casey’s analysis of informed consent in the abortion context. “[I]nformed choice need
not be defined in such narrow terms that all considerations of the effect on the fetus are
made irrelevant.” 505 U.S. at 883. Indeed, “most women considering an abortion would
deem the impact on the fetus relevant, if not dispositive, to the decision.” Id. at 882.
Requiring the pregnant woman to be informed that “human physical life” begins with
fertilization may help her to understand and appreciate “the full consequences of her
decision,” including “the consequences to the fetus.” Id. Where, as here, “the information
the State requires to be made available to the woman is truthful and non-misleading,” the
requirement is constitutional. Id. Because plaintiffs have not shown that they have a
should be denied.
11
Although § 16-34-2-1.1(a)(1)(E) presents a descriptive statement of fact, not a
normative statement of opinion, the Court has recognized that “[e]ven in the earliest stages of
pregnancy, the State may enact rules and regulations designed to encourage [the pregnant
woman] to know that there are philosophic and social arguments of great weight that can be
brought to bear in favor of continuing the pregnancy to full term . . . .” Casey, 505 U.S. at 872.
21
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, amici curiae, members of the Indiana General
Assembly, respectfully request that this Honorable Court deny plaintiffs’ motion for the
Respectfully submitted,
s/Thomas Brejcha*
Thomas Brejcha
President & Chief Counsel
Thomas More Society
29 South La Salle Street Suite 440
Chicago, Illinois 60603
(312) 782-1680 (tel)
(312) 782-1887 (fax)
Illinois ARDC No. 0288446
22
List of Amici Curiae
Senate
House of Representatives