ST. LOUIS (AP) - A South Dakota law requiring abortion doctors to warn patients about the procedure is not truthful and infringes on the physician's right to free speech, an attorney for Planned Parenthood told a federal appeals panel Thursday.

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis heard the challenge to the law by Planned Parenthood of South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. The law would require doctors to tell women that abortions end human lives and cause serious psychological problems.

A ruling by the panel isn't expected for several weeks.

John Guhin, assistant attorney general for South Dakota, said the law is "not a straightjacket" for doctors. He offered a sample letter that abortion doctors could give patients and essentially dissociate themselves from the state law.

At least one judge wondered if that was possible.

"I don't see anything in the law that says a doctor can dissociate himself from the law," Judge Raymond Gruender said.

Tim Branson, the attorney for Planned Parenthood, said the law is untruthful because it refers to the embryo as a "human being." Planned Parenthood has pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that an embryo is not a person.

The state argued last year that the requirement in the law is medically accurate and supported by science.