Revive Law Protecting Against ‘Coerced’ Abortion, State Says

A South Dakota law requiring women seeking abortions to first consult with anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers must be revived to protect women against “coerced” abortions, the state told a federal appeals court.

South Dakota has a compelling interest in preventing women from being pressured into having abortions, it said in a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Abortion providers like the Planned Parenthood affiliate plaintiff can’t be relied on to get a woman’s “full, free, informed consent” to the procedure ending a pregnancy, the state said.

Providers have incentives to disregard “signs of ambivalence or ...