WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Supreme Court ruled today that the abortion laws of Georgia and Texas are unconstitutional because they restrict medical practice needed to protect a prospective mother's health.
The Court struck down the laws in two lengthy opinions by Justice Harry A. Blackmun.
The Texas statute made abortion a crime unless necessary to save the mother's life. Thirty other states have similar laws.
Blackmun said for the stage prior to about the end of the first three months of pregnancy, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the woman's doctor.
Mother's Health
But after that, the state in promoting its interest in the mother's health may regulate abortion procedures, the opinion stated.
For the stage "subsequent to viability," the state may regulate and even forbid abortion except where necessary in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother, the Court held.
Georgia is among 16 states which allow abortions only for a few specific exceptions such as pregnancy after rape or the possibility of a physical or mental defect in the child.
The Georgia law provided that abortions could be obtained for three reasons: danger to the life or serious impairment of the health of the mother; possibility of mental or physical defect; or instances of rape.
Blackmun's opinion said the state may define the term physician to mean only one currently licensed and may bar any abortion by a person who does not meet the qualifications.
The Georgia law stipulated that an abortion could only be performed in a hospital accredited by the state's joint committee on accreditation of hospitals; that the procedure be approved by. the hospital's staff abortion committee; and that the performing physician's judgment be confirmed by independent examinations of the patient by two other licensed physicians.
Blackmun ruled all three procedural conditions unconstitutional.
The vote in both cases was 7 to 2 with Justices Byron R. White and William H. Rehnquist dissenting.
