Profession
Court: Fla. doctor did not violate clinic act
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 16, 2004
A federal appeals court in late January dismissed a lawsuit against a Florida physician in which a patient claimed that the doctor violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act when he restrained her from leaving during an abortion that had complications.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that there is no evidence that the physician had violated the act, which prohibits using force to injure, intimidate or interfere with a woman to prevent her from obtaining reproductive health services or because she has obtained services.
"[The patient] offered no evidence that [the physician's] motivation was to prevent her from obtaining reproductive health services," the three-judge panel said in its opinion. "In contrast, during his deposition [the physician] explained that a doctor cannot obey a woman's demand that the abortion be stopped at just any time, because she might risk death if he did so."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/02/16/prbf0216.htm.
