Court Opinion

ID: 9625010
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:24:46.120387+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:59.036269
License: Public Domain

LEWIS, Chief Judge
(concurring).
 Each of my fellow judges has chosen to write at some length in this case and has arrived at a different conclusion from reasoning bound to the extreme and opposite ends of the spectrum concerning the emotional and agonizing subject of abortion. Judge Anderson has earlier joined with me in an order denying temporary injunctive relief to plaintiff and I now agree with and join Judge Anderson in holding that the court should abstain from entering a declaratory judgment. The basic problem here is the interpretation of a state statute which, absent exceptional circumstances, should be left to and is the responsibility of the state courts. So, too, it is not desirable to issue declaratory or advisory comments and views of an anticipatory nature as a fore-guess on matters presently pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. However, in deciding to deny injunctive relief and thereafter abstain, the members of the court have necessarily had to consider some unsettled areas in the field of abortion and I consider it necessary to express, largely by summary, the areas in which I agree and disagree with my Brothers where the particular posture of this case requires it.
1. I do not accept the claim that there is a rational connection between the statutory requirement that the doctor notify the husband of the wife’s impending abortion and the doctor’s duty to exercise his considered medical judgment as to whether to perform the abortion. If it is necessary or even desirable for the doctor to consult with the husband that fact is not apparent on the statute’s face nor is there any evidence in this record to establish it. Nor do I accept in any way as desirable that it should be the statutory duty of the doctor to notify the husband of his wife’s condition. This duty, if such it be, lies with the wife and when imposed upon the doctor would seem to project him very personally into a family situation unrelated to his professional commitment to his patient. Such a burden might well act as a deterrent to his willingness to perform the operation, and were this “chilling effect” established by expert testimony it might well invalidate the statute. Thus I consider the subject statute to be faulty in this regard. However, I do not deem this factor determinative of the case. Here, it was stipulated that the doctor was willing to notify the husband, absent the wife’s objection. To me, the doctor’s willing*685ness was a prime factor leading to my vote to deny injunctive relief.
2. I reject entirely the premise that any legal significance attaches to the claim of plaintiff that she became pregnant by someone other than her husband. She volunteered this information to her doctor who, in turn, had no statutory obligation to reveal that information to anyone. I see no violation of the confidential doctor-patient relationship in this regard nor any side effect of criminal prosecution under state law. Every unmarried woman who receives an abortion must admit to her doctor an earlier act in violation of state law. Here, the revelation of adultery is no different. The more basic question is whether the woman has to reveal the fact of her marriage at all and the Supreme Court has settled this matter. In Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 93 S.Ct. 739, 35 L.Ed.2d 201, it was specifically held that the woman’s familial situation was a proper medical consideration in the formation of a considered medical judgment.
3. Finally, I find nothing in any Supreme Court decision that in any way negatives a husband’s legal interest in the abortion of his wife. To the contrary, this question has been recognized by the High Court and pending cases have submitted that issue for consideration. The Utah statute does not require the husband to consent to the operation. It requires only that he be notified of her intent to have an abortion. If the husband has any legal interest in the abortion of his wife, such interest must begin with knowledge of the situation. The Utah statute requires no more and, to me, it would be a constitutional anomaly to hold that such a requirement is patently unconstitutional so as to invalidate the statute as plaintiff here seeks and to grant immediate relief as requested. I am certainly not prepared to say that a husband has no interest, actual, legal or otherwise, in his wife’s abortion.