US Supreme Court throws out law that forced doctors in North Carolina to deliver antiabortion message

A North Carolina law that forced abortion doctors to seek informed consent while providing a mandatory ultrasound and reading a state sanctioned antiabortion message will be struck from the books after the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the state.

That refusal makes final the December decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which ruled the law unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the doctor’s first amendment right to free speech. “The state cannot commandeer the doctor-patient relationship to compel a physician to express its preference to …