Government
Fight continues against government request for abortion files
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 15, 2004
Planned Parenthood is fighting government requests to turn over patients' abortion records. The organization last year sued the government in federal court to try to stop a law known as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act from going into effect.
The group claims that the law, which bans physicians from performing intact dilatation and extraction, is illegal because it doesn't include an exception for medical necessity. The government argues that the procedure isn't medically necessary and says it needs the medical charts to defend that position.
In addition to the Planned Parenthood suit, about a dozen physicians and the National Abortion Federation filed in federal courts last year to stop the law. Those individuals and some medical facilities also are fighting the request for medical records.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/03/15/gvbf0315.htm.
