Abortion Facility Regulation 
Law May Go the Supreme Court

February 22, 2003—Washington, DC: In a lawsuit that may impact how states can monitor what happens at abortion businesses, abortion advocates are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to abortion facility regulation laws in South Carolina.

The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that would end several regulations on abortion facilities in South Carolina.

South Carolina has some of the most stringent regulations in the nation for the abortion industry. They include requiring clinics to admit women to a hospital, if needed following a botched abortion, and making records available to inspectors on demand. Abortion facilities must meet a laundry list of requirements that are the norm for any medical center.

Pro-life advocates favor such laws because they protect women and make abortion advocates spend money to meet the requirements -- which may prove costly enough to drive them out of business.

Denise Burke, a spokesman for Americans United for Life, thinks the regulations are reasonable.

"Actually, it's mainly to ensure that doctors are engaging in proper medical practice and procedures in caring for the women in the abortion clinics," Burke said.

Last year, a lower court upheld the regulations, but now the Center for Reproductive Rights is asking the nation's highest court to dismiss them, allowing abortion facilities to operate virtually without oversight. Burke said even with current regulations, they are dangerous.

"We know from incidents in South Carolina and other states that these abortion clinics are not being run in a safe or medically acceptable manner," Burke said.

The pro-abortion legal center said it wants to protect the private information of its clients. But Oran Smith, executive director of the South Carolina-based Palmetto Family Council, said state oversight is essential to safeguard the health of women the abortion advocates claim to value so highly.

"Their arguments are internally inconsistent and they are blinded by their absolute approach to abortion," Smith said. "It is duplicitous."

Smith doubts the Supreme Court will accept the case.

"I would think it would be unlikely that it would be heard," Smith said. "But you never know what their thought process is and how they decide to hear a case."

If left to stand, these same pro-life regulations, also operating in Louisiana, could spread across the country.