Court to Consider Constitutionality of Third-Party Consent for Abortions

October 03, 2011

A group of mentally disabled women and their representatives were given the green light on Friday to file new claims of constitutional violations against the District of Columbia over abortions and other medical procedures performed on the women without the consent of legal representatives or a court order.

According to an opinion (PDF) published Friday by U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr., constitutional objections to third-party consent to abortions "appears to raise a question of first impression in the federal courts."

The case, filed in 2001 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, centers on the experiences of three anonymous Jane Does, mentally disabled women who received care from the city starting in the 1960s and 1970s.

Two of the women claimed that city officials authorized abortions after they became pregnant in the late 1970s and early 1980s, without consulting their legal representatives or getting a court order. The amended complaint alleges that city health officials "illegally consented to abortions and/or sterilizations" for at least 75 other individuals. the rest