A federal appeals court has denied a request to reconsider a lawsuit challenging a Texas law that requires doctors to perform a sonogram before an abortion.

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the suit on behalf of doctors claiming that the state Legislature had passed a law that wrongly dictates how a doctor deals with a patient. The rule requires a doctor to conduct a sonogram, describe the features of the fetus and play aloud the fetal heartbeat whether the woman wants it or not. The doctor must also conduct the sonogram 24 hours before performing the abortion.

The chief justice of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier ruled that there was nothing wrong with the law. The doctors had asked the entire court to reconsider that ruling.

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