Neither Mrs. Acuna’s lawyer, Harold J. Cassidy, nor John Zen Jackson, lawyer for the doctor, returned messages left for them seeking comment.

Officials for the American Civil Liberties Union praised the decision.

“It sends a message that New Jersey will not tolerate backdoor efforts to curtail reproductive rights or free speech,” Ed Barocas, legal director of the state’s A.C.L.U. chapter, told The Associated Press. “We will not allow the anti-choice lobby to force its moral or theological beliefs upon others and to intimidate doctors or women with lawsuits that are without merit.”

Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life, told The A.P. that she was disappointed in the ruling.

“My reaction is that once again the court relies on an outdated schizophrenic mentality to the detriment of women and indulges in semantic gymnastics to avoid the indisputable fact that a child in the womb is a human being,” she said. “It is human from the minute it comes into existence. From the moment of conception.”

Mrs. Acuna, who is now 40 years old, suffered from kidney problems beginning in high school. She said that she went to Dr. Turkish, who had been her doctor for five years and had delivered one of her children, when she found herself suffering from abdominal pains and headaches in early 1996.

After an examination and an ultrasound, the doctor told her she was six to eight weeks pregnant. Mrs. Acuna said in court documents that the doctor told her the pregnancy would put her health at risk because of her kidney problems, and that she should have an abortion or she had only three months to live. The doctor said in court papers that he did not tell her she had only three months to live and said it was Mrs. Acuna and her husband who first brought up the subject of abortion as an option.

“According to Acuna, Turkish told her that she ‘needed an abortion because (y)our kidneys are messing you up,”‘ court papers said. “Acuna asked Turkish whether ‘the baby was already there.’ According to Acuna, Turkish replied, ‘Don’t be stupid, it’s only blood.’ ”