[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website] has announced it will rehear arguments on a preliminary injunction imposed last year [JURIST report] which prevented South Dakota from enforcing a 2005 abortion law [text]. Enforcement of the law was initially halted [JURIST report] in 2005, pending a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota [advocacy website] to challenge its constitutionality. The statute, which the governor signed along with three other bills restricting abortion [JURIST report], requires doctors who perform abortions to tell women that abortion ends the lives of "human beings." South Dakota asserts that the legislation requires doctors to provide only medically accurate information and will not prevent access to abortion. Planned Parenthood argues that the law violates the free-speech rights of doctors.

Earlier this year, the South Dakota legislature passed [JURIST report] a law banning most abortions [PDF text] in the state, but voters rejected the ban [JURIST report] at the polls in November. AP has more.