Mandatory ultrasounds

Via blog.bioethics.net: 11 state legislatures are facing proposed legislation to offer or require women seeking abortions to see ultrasound images of the fetus, and in some cases listen to the heartbeat. Lest you be confused, these are women who have, in at least the vast majority of cases, already decided to have an abortion. Some of these proposals allow the ultrasound to be done right up to 30 minutes before the abortion procedure. Several of the states graciously allow an 18 or 24 hour waiting period. (The AP story lists 12 states in total, but one in their list is actually South Carolina’s extension of an existing 1-hour law to a 24-hour one. Very sweet of them.)

The goal of these proposals is obviously, in Dr. Johnson’s words, “that [the woman] might catch a glimpse of her unborn fetus and change her mind.” If only they knew it had a heartbeat! pro-life legislators are musing. They assume that women getting abortions are doing so on a whim and have never really thought about the implications. This is insulting. It’s obviously a terribly difficult decision which every woman facing it agonizes over. Admittedly there is the occasional irresponsible person, but the real effect of any of these laws passing would be to put thousands of women through intense psychological trauma, on top of what is already an emotionally taxing experience.

Unable to actually ban abortion outright, these lawmakers are erecting bizarre barriers around the procedure to serve as criminal sentences. Their intentions are plainly to punish women, but they do so in a cruel and scarring way and under the perverse pretext of medical regulation. If abortion is not illegal, we shouldn’t be punishing the act.

I know random and strange legislation gets proposed all the time without any real hope of passing. However, the fact that this has popped up in a dozen states at once makes me worry that there’s some real initiative behind this horrible idea. I hope the other legislators step it up and vote it down.

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February 9, 2009 · Written by
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Comments

2 Responses to “Mandatory ultrasounds”

  1. Ian Identicon Icon Ian on February 9th, 2009 2:22 pm

    I wonder if this would cause an undue burden on the ability to book ultrasounds, or if ultrasounds were already busy if some women would be unable to get one before her scheduled abortion and would then have to go through with an unwanted birth.

  2. Z Identicon Icon Z on February 10th, 2009 9:45 pm

    The number of abortions is miniscule compared to the number of ultrasounds done, so I doubt it would cause any real problems for ultrasound scheduling overall. I do think you’re right that it could possibly cause problems in the other direction, though — difficulties for women who want abortions to get their ultrasound in in time. The additional cost for the technician’s hours, buying equipment the clinic might not otherwise need, etc. would also probably add to the cost of the abortion, yet another arbitrary way to make it more difficult for people to get them.

    But yeah, big shocker. In addition to being morally reprehensible, these laws would also be extremely inefficient and wasteful. Sigh.

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