Opinion ID: 391414
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Standard for Testing the Validity of the Ordinance

Text: 20 The plaintiffs contend on appeal that the district court applied an erroneous standard in testing the constitutionality of the various provisions of the ordinance. Rather than requiring the City to demonstrate the necessity of the various provisions to further a compelling interest of the City, the district court tested the ordinance by less stringent standards. In short, it is the position of the plaintiffs that the district court failed to subject the ordinance to the strict scrutiny required by controlling decisions of the Supreme Court.
21 The district court acknowledged that the pioneering opinion in the field of abortion law, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973), speaks in terms of the fundamental right of a pregnant woman to make an abortion decision in consultation with her physician and holds that regulations limiting fundamental rights may be justified only by some compelling state interest. Further, any legislative enactment which affects such rights must be narrowly drawn to express only the legitimate state interest at stake. The first point at which the Supreme Court identified a compelling state interest an interest in the health of the pregnant woman was at approximately the end of the first trimester. Id. at 163, 93 S.Ct. at 732. However, after reviewing Supreme Court decisions subsequent to Roe v. Wade, the district court concluded that a state may impose certain limitations on the right to an abortion, even in the first trimester, so long as these regulations do not unduly burden the decision-making process and are rationally related to a legitimate purpose of the state. This conclusion was summarized in the following language of the district court: 22 It becomes clear, therefore, from an examination of the cases decided since Roe, that not all regulation of first trimester abortion providers is impermissible. An absolute prohibition of first trimester abortions could only be justified by a compelling state interest. Likewise, regulations that afford the power to veto a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy must be supported by a compelling state interest. See (Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v.) Danforth, 428 U.S. (52) at 67-72, 96 S.Ct. 2831 (at 2840-2842, 49 L.Ed.2d 788). Regulations that interfere with a woman's privacy to a lesser degree, however, require a lesser showing by the state to withstand constitutional attack: As Whalen (v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 97 S.Ct. 869, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977)) makes clear, the right in Roe v. Wade can be understood only by considering both the woman's interest and the nature of the State's interference with it. Maher (v. Roe), supra 432 U.S. (464) at 473, 97 S.Ct. (2376) at 2382 (53 L.Ed.2d 484). 23 Accordingly, the Court must determine the degree that each section of Ordinance Number 160-1978 interferes with a woman's constitutional right, in consultation with her physician, to choose to terminate her pregnancy. That interference must then be weighed against any valid state interest furthered by such section. Finally, it will be necessary to consider the combined effect of all the various sections not independently unconstitutional to determine whether their combined impact results in such a degree of interference with the constitutional right at issue to result in a finding of invalidity. 22 24 479 F.Supp. at 1200.
25 We believe the district court read too much into the post-Wade decisions of the Supreme Court. In Planned Parenthood of Missouri v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52, 96 S.Ct. 2831, 49 L.Ed.2d 788 (1976), the Court found, at least implicitly, that a regulation requiring a pregnant woman to sign a written consent to an abortion did not restrict the decision of the patient and her physician regarding abortion during the first stage of pregnancy. 428 U.S. at 66, 96 S.Ct. at 2840. The Court also found, explicitly, that a record-keeping requirement of the Missouri statute imposed no legally significant impact or consequence on the abortion decision or on the physician-patient relationship. Id. at 81, 96 S.Ct. at 2846. The validation of these provisions of the Missouri statute was based upon a finding that neither provision involved an intrusion into the decision-making process sufficient to require constitutional analysis. The decision was not based on a holding that the constitutionality of the statute could rest on something less than a compelling state interest. There is no indication in Danforth that if the intrusions had been found significant, any state interest less than a compelling one would have served to validate them. The most that may be inferred from Danforth is that there are some slight intrusions which the state may make into the decision-making process, even during the first trimester of pregnancy. 3 These intrusions are not legally significant, and do not trigger a further constitutional analysis. 26 Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S. 464, 97 S.Ct. 2376, 53 L.Ed.2d 484 (1977), offers even less support than Danforth for the proposition that the constitutionality of the Akron ordinance may be tested by some standard less demanding than a compelling state interest. The statute under attack in Maher forbade the expenditure of state funds for nontherapeutic abortions while permitting such expenditures for childbirth. The plaintiffs in Maher argued that the statute offended the Equal Protection Clause by creating an impermissible classification. In upholding the statute the Supreme Court emphasized the differences between the funding statute before it in Maher and the drastic restrictions imposed on the abortion decision by the statute at issue in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147), 432 U.S. at 472, 97 S.Ct. at 2381-2382. Treating childbirth and abortion as two alternative medical methods of dealing with pregnancy, the state was required to demonstrate only that there was a rational relationship between the decision not to fund nontherapeutic abortions and its decision to favor childbirth over abortions. The Court repeatedly emphasized in Maher that the Connecticut statute dealt only with funding and did not place any limitations on the right to have an abortion. See also, Beal v. Doe, 432 U.S. 438, 97 S.Ct. 2366, 53 L.Ed.2d 464 (1977), and Harris v. McRae, supra. 27 As the Court pointed out in Maher, (t)here is a basic difference between direct state interference with a protected activity and state encouragement of an alternative activity consonant with legislative policy. 432 U.S. at 475, 97 S.Ct. at 2383 (footnote omitted). In Roe v. Wade, as in the present case, the state attempted to impose its will by force of law by making it a crime to provide services which a pregnant woman is entitled to receive. Id. at 476, 97 S.Ct. at 2384. Such a statute impinges directly on a protected activity and requires strict scrutiny. The district court appears to have examined only the degree of state interference which each provision of the Akron statute imposed upon the abortion decision. It is clear that the nature of the interference must also be examined. Maher does not provide support for the claim that an ordinance such as the one now before us may be tested by a more lenient standard. We accept the statements of the Supreme Court that its later cases do not represent a retreat from the Roe v. Wade holding that the state's right to regulate abortions, at each stage of pregnancy, must rest on a compelling and legitimate state interest. E. g., Maher v. Roe, supra, 432 U.S. at 475, 97 S.Ct. at 2383.
28 Consideration of these decisions leads to the conclusion that a two-step analysis is required. First, the nature of the particular regulatory provision must be considered. If it causes no legally significant impact or consequence on the right of a pregnant woman, in consultation with a physician, to choose to terminate her pregnancy, it does not raise a constitutional issue. The particular provisions of the Missouri statute (written consent and record keeping) which produced the Danforth language relied upon by the defendants here, and the entire thrust of the statute in Maher, were of this kind. Only if the provision does result in such significant impact or consequence must a second inquiry be made to determine whether or not the regulatory provision serves a legitimate and compelling state interest. If a compelling state interest is found, the regulation must be examined further to determine whether it imposes an undue burden on the abortion decision, that is, whether it is sufficiently narrowly drawn. 29 We believe the district court applied the test of whether a provision unduly burdens the abortion decision at the wrong stage of its inquiry. Once it is found that a regulation constitutes direct state interference with a protected activity, Maher, supra, 432 U.S. at 475, 97 S.Ct. at 2383, here the right of a pregnant woman to have an abortion, that regulation is subject to strict scrutiny. Only then, in the process of balancing the interest of the state against the method chosen to deal with it, does the unduly burdensome factor become important. Since the state has no compelling interest during the first trimester of pregnancy, no balancing is required. If a regulation results in a legally significant impact or consequence on a first trimester abortion decision, it is invalid. See Roe v. Wade, supra, 410 U.S. at 163, 93 S.Ct. at 732. Further, even though a regulation may relate to a stage of pregnancy during which the state has a compelling interest, nevertheless, the method chosen to effectuate that interest may fail if it unduly burdens the decision to obtain an abortion. As the Court said in Charles v. Carey, 627 F.2d 772, 777 (7th Cir. 1980), the term 'undue burden' defines the ultimate constitutional issue, not merely the threshold requirement for strict scrutiny.