Informed Consent: Really?

(Please note sarcasm in last paragraph!)

H.B. 200 Informed Consent, which requires ultrasound images to be taken and then displayed to women seeking abortions, if they so choose [to see the images], has generated much controversy, as anything having to do with a woman’s right to choose does.  This bill made it through the Utah House last week.

An article in the Deseret News has yielded some interesting comments from readers:

This law is a fairly transparent attempt to reduce the number of abortions by counting on pregnant women to change their minds after seeing an ultrasound of their living fetus. Naturally there are two ways to look at this: the pro-life view is that if a woman is confronted with graphic images of the fetus she can’t otherwise see, she will make an emotional decision against the abortion. The pro-choice view is that this is the equivalent of a protester standing outside the clinic with graphic photos of aborted fetuses — in other words, intimidation. Both views have some validity, which is why abortion is such a difficult debate in the first place. How many women will “choose” to see these images, is hard to say; whether any medical providers will somehow “show” the images to a woman without being asked is also hard to predict. And so the tug of war over a highly personal issue, between two equally passionate factions, with vulnerable, pregnant women in the middle, goes on and on.

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Legislature, please show some compassion to victims of sexual violence. Imagine if it was your daughter, wife or sister who was attacked. Would you still thrust this upon her?

These women CAN’T sleep at night. That is why they make the painful choice to have an abortion. This is a bill of re-victimization. Even in the cases where the pregnancy was just unplanned, it is not the government’s right to interfere with the woman or her doctor’s decision.

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What a complete WASTE of tax payers dollars and a HUGE WASTE of our State Legislatures time. We have so many other huge problems like our deficit and our unemployment crisis to fix. This bills only purpose is to try and make a woman change their mind as the congressman said in the article. To all Utah residents and to all the members of the Utah congress, abortion is LEGAL! Get used to it. I can’t wait to cast my vote this next election against any incumbent who voted in support of this. The abortion clinics should have the choice to support and install this in their facility, not be forced to. If this passes into law I hope the ACLU will fight this and get it overturned.

H.B. 200 does not provide complete disclosure to the woman seeking an abortion.  While this bill is aimed in reality at attempting to have women change their minds about abortion (even after long and often painful thought into the decision), there are no provisions whatsoever to provide financial support by the government if the woman changes her mind.  The “information” and “education” does not, for example, include the reality of the costs of raising a child; the emotional distress of giving the baby up for adoption and subsequently the legal rights of the birth mother to stay connected, or not, to the child; or parenting issues education.  [Tongue in cheek] If state legislators are intent on making it difficult for women to make their own choices through a bill that legislates moral values, they should include in such a bill the financial obligation and commitment to support  the woman and her child should she change her mind about having the abortion.  “Informed” consent?  Not really.

(cross-posted to Utah Legislature Watch)