A federal judge ruled Friday that a North Carolina abortion law that made women receive ultrasounds before their abortion is unconstitutional.
The law also required women to listen to the ultrasound's image described to them in detail. U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles said this violates freedom of speech granted by the Constitution.
"The Supreme Court has never held that a state has the power to compel a health care provider to speak, in his or her own voice, the state's ideological message in favor of carrying a pregnancy to term and this court declines to do so today," Eagles said in her ruling, CNN reported.
According to the abortion law, the ultrasound has to be placed in front of the woman so she can clearly see it. The medical official then had to describe the characteristics of the fetus, such as its length, and ask the woman if she wanted to hear its heartbeat, the Associated Press reported.
"The state has not established that the speech-and-delay provision directly advances a substantial state interest in regulating health care, especially when the state does not require the patient to receive the message and the patient takes steps to avoid receipt of the message," Eagles wrote, according to the AP.
The law was passed by the state's Republican controlled legislature in 2011. Legislators claimed that having women see their ultrasounds would encourage childbirth, the AP reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other reproductive rights groups protested the ultrasound abortion law on behalf of state doctors and providers of abortion, the AP reported.
"If these unconstitutional measures had gone into effect, doctors would have been prevented from using their best medial judgment to provide patients with care based on their specific individual needs," ACLU North Carolina executive director Jennifer Rudinger told the AP. "This law represented an egregious government intrusion into individuals' private medial decisions, and we are very pleased that it will not go into effect."
It is not yet clear if the state will appeal Eagles' ruling. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper told the AP they are reviewing the decision.
