HIGH COURT WON'T STOP ABORTION WAITING PERIOD

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993                   TAG: 9304030065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
HIGH COURT WON'T STOP ABORTION WAITING PERIOD
The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for North Dakota to begin enforcing an abortion law that requires women to wait 24 hours after a counseling session before they can have an abortion.
The action was not an expression of the court's view of the merits of the law, Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter emphasized in a brief concurring opinion. Rather, the two justices said, it reflected the unusual procedural nature of the case as it reached the Supreme Court.
The court's unsigned order lifted a temporary stay that Justice Harry Blackmun granted Wednesday at the request of North Dakota's only abortion clinic, in Fargo, and two doctors who travel there from Minnesota every week to perform abortions. Blackmun and Justice John Paul Stevens noted their dissent on Friday's order.
The first appeal of the original ruling in the case has not been heard. It is extremely unusual for the Supreme Court to issue a stay in that circumstance. - The New York Times

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB