Search

A woman has recognized rights under the Constitution to obtain an abortion, but she also has a right to personal autonomy. To preserve this right, the state must regulate the disclosures regarding an abortion procedure to ensure the patient is getting the information needed to make an informed decision about what happens to her body during an abortion. As history shows, courts have dealt with abortions with care by honoring the woman's autonomy. As the right to choose to get an abortion is fundamental, the right of the woman to be apprised of all of the facts and all of the risks associated with the procedure is equally as fundamental when looking at our nation's history. One of the ways to advocate for the woman's right to an abortion and to consent to what happens to her body is to uphold the constitutionality of the display and describe requirements and grant the power to compel disclosures in this context to the state. There is a circuit split between the Fourth, Eighth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits over the constitutionality of the display and describe requirements of their respective states. The Fourth Circuit has held that the display and describe requirement violates the physician's First Amendment rights by compelling the physician to disclose an ideological message. Whereas the Eighth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits have upheld the requirements on the basis that they are medically necessary and thereby do not infringe on the constitutional rights of the physicians. The Supreme Court has denied review and subsequently, the answer is not clear. Abortion is a prevalent topic and upholding the display and describe statutes on constitutional grounds is vital to ensuring the continuing evolution of abortion litigation and legislation toward a more cohesive and unified approach. The Supreme Court has held that a woman has the right to obtain an abortion and the state may not enact regulations that place an undue burden on that right. However, the state has the authority to reasonably regulate physician speech because the state has an interest in human life and maintaining the standards in the medical industry. The state may not compel a speaker to disclose an ideological message, but the state can compel the physician to apprise the patient of the risks and the alternatives, if any, of a medical procedure in order to obtain informed consent from the patient. The Fourth, Eighth, Fifth, and Sixth circuits disagree on the constitutionality of the display and describe requirements that North Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Kentucky, respectively, have enacted. This Article is the first to advocate for the woman's right to be informed and to consent to the surgical procedure, and it urges the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split and hold the display and describe requirements of the states' abortion statutes as not violating the physician's First Amendment right to free speech. All physicians are required to reveal information in order for the patient to give informed consent. Resultantly, displaying the ultrasound and explaining what the ultrasound depicts is medically necessary to obtain the woman's informed consent. Therefore, this does not violate the physician's constitutional rights. This speech is commercial speech because it is speech involved in a commercial transaction and is subject to reasonable regulations. Individuals can differ on their beliefs regarding abortion and still agree that the woman has a right to know and consent to what happens to her body. This Article is not divisive; it protects to the woman's right to an abortion, her right of access to information, and her right of personal autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The paddlefish (Polyodon spathula Walbaum, 1792) is a springtime migrant that requires discrete abiotic conditions such as water temperature, discharge, and substrate composition for successful spawning and recruitment. Although population declines have prevailed throughout much of the species range, Oklahoma paddlefish are abundant and support popular recreational snag fisheries – most notably in Grand Lake. This stock utilizes the Grand Lake's two primary headwaters, the Neosho and Spring rivers, with only episodic recruitment success. However, relationships between suitable spawning habitat and water level have not been evaluated in this system. Using consumer‐grade sonar equipment, this study identified and quantified hard river substrates (such as cobble and bedrock) and investigated proportional habitat availability at a variety of simulated river conditions. Sonar data were used to construct 49‐m2 grids of depth and bottom hardness (H) ranging from 0.0 (soft) ‐ 0.5 (hard). Ground‐truthing samples of bottom composition were collected with a grab sampler and by visual identification. Substrate types were pooled into two categories: soft substrates (H < 0.386) and spawning substrates (H ≥ 0.386) allowing for estimation of available spawning habitat in each river. Spawning habitat comprised 69% of total available habitat for the Neosho River (6.5 ha/km) and 58% for the Spring River (7.9 ha/km). Estimated spawning habitat was simulated over a range of river stages and predictive models were developed to estimate proportional spawning habitat availability (PHA). Although the Spring River contains more concentrated spawning habitat in closer proximity to Grand Lake, the Neosho River contains a greater quantity over nearly twice the distance to the first migration barrier, has a larger watershed, and demonstrates greater PHA at lower river stages. Model results were validated in context of known high and low recruitment years, where a greater frequency and duration of days with ≥90% PHA were observed in good recruitment years, particularly in the Neosho River. In total, results suggest the Neosho River has greater value for paddlefish reproduction than the Spring River. Research‐informed harvest management will remain critical to the conservation of wild‐recruiting stocks for continued recreational use in Oklahoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat selection has been quantified for age-0 and adult pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus Bull. Illinois State Lab. Nat. Hist., 7, 1905, 37, but little is known regarding habitat use of the juvenile fish. The objective of this study was to quantify habitat use and selection of juvenile pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River, Nebraska, USA. Thirty-seven age-4 pallid sturgeon with transmitters were released in July of 2014, plus an additional 21 in September, with habitat monitored using biotelemetry. Age-1 and age-4 hatchery reared pallid sturgeon were found to avoid areas associated with the outside bend and thalweg habitats that were characterized by rapid water velocity (>1 ms−1), which accounted for 50% of the area in the channelized Missouri River. Age-1 pallid sturgeon selected an off-channel habitat and inside bend habitat while age-4 pallid sturgeon selected an off-channel and inside bend channel border habitat. Juvenile pallid sturgeon in unaltered rivers have been shown to associate with island tips and sand bars, habitat that is largely absent in the channelized Missouri River. This study indicates that juvenile pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River, Nebraska are selecting habitats with shallow water and slow water velocity, similar to those associated with island tips and sand bars in unaltered reaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saugeye, a hatchery-produced hybrid of walleye, Sander vitreus (Mitchill), × sauger, Sander canadense (Griffith & Smith), is commonly stocked by several state fishery management agencies in the United States. Saugeye is a top-level predator that can restructure fish communities and provide supplemental angling opportunities. However, there are few published studies explaining distributions and habitat selection of saugeye. This study determined seasonal home range estimates and habitat selection of saugeye in a small warmwater impoundment using ultrasonic telemetry. Seasons for this study were defined as winter, spawn, spring, summer and autumn. Mean home range estimates were greatest during spawn when water temperature increased from 7.5 to 15 °C and lowest in winter when water temperature decreased below 7.5 °C. Saugeye selected open water and mid-water ledge habitat during each season, but rock/gravel shoreline was increasingly selected during winter and spawn. These results corroborate previous studies that suggest saugeye exhibit seasonal variation in distribution and habitat use patterns. Managers should consider distribution and habitat selection trends of saugeye when assessing stocks or determining whether to introduce the species in a small warmwater impoundment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telemetry data were used to quantify seasonal resource selection and rank-preferred habitat types for blue suckers Cycleptus elongatus in the middle Missouri River and its tributaries, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, U.S.A. Habitat diversity required by C. elongatus to complete its annual life-history cycle was evident by interseasonal variation in habitat selection. Tributaries and unchannelized portions of the middle Missouri River system were selected during the inferred spawning season (spring), habitats along shorelines in the channelized middle Missouri River were selected for postspawning (summer) and areas of reduced current were generally selected for the period preceding spawning (autumn). This study provides insight into mature C. elongatus behaviour throughout its annual life cycle. Furthermore, these results document the interseasonal variability in habitat selection of C. elongatus and highlight the need for development of habitat selection models for other imperilled fish species in aquatic systems affected by anthropogenic developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]