At least half a dozen women stood outside Planned Parenthood offices Tuesday morning, protesting with signs filled with slogans such as, "My abortion hurt me."

They staged their protest in the 100 block of Babcock Road on the eve of a federal appeals court that is taking up key provisions of the state's new sonogram law enacted by the Texas Legislature last year.

"If I had seen a sonogram of my baby and heard the heart beating, I would not have chosen abortion," said Nona Ellington, who was among the protestors.

Last August, a federal judge in Austin issued a preliminary injunction blocking the new law's key provisions requiring abortion providers to show patients their sonograms, describe them in detail and provide audio of the heartbeat.

Yvonne Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, said the judge ruled doing so would be a violation of the patient's First Amendment rights by subjecting to her to "forced speech."

She said if they disagree, physicians also would be mandated to provide information as mandated.

If not, Gutierrez said they risk costly fines and possibly losing their medical license.

Gutierrez said Planned Parenthood has been doing sonograms 24 hours before the procedure since Oct. 1, when the law took effect.

She said the same physician who will do the abortion also personally provides informed consent information and a women's right to know booklet, and is prepared to answer a patient's questions.

As originally enacted, Gutierrez said the physician would have had to position the screen so that a woman lying on an examination table could view it.

However, Ellington said not only does a woman need to see her sonogram, she wants physicians "to explain it to her, what she's looking at."

"I really feel that a woman needs to see that before making that huge decision," Ellington said.

Beginning tomorrow, the three-judge federal panel in New Orleans will consider those arguments before deciding whether the law should be fully enacted.