by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center
The Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill to make sure women are not “coerced” into having abortions. Of course being pro-choice means supporting a woman’s right to choose for herself, without pressure from parents or partners. But here are the facts; abortion providers are already keenly aware of the possibility of coercion. They are trained to identify when a woman isn’t comfortable with her decision for any reason, and provide the appropriate resources to help guide her in making her decision.
This is straight from the 2007 Clinical Policy Guidelines of the National Abortion Federations:
Policy Statement: Obtaining informed consent and assessing that the decision to have an abortion is made freely by the patient are essential parts of the abortion process.
The legislators presume that abortion providers are unethical and that abortion victimizes women. In fact, the bill states at the very beginning, “Under current law, a woman upon whom an abortion is to be performed …” as though the woman is completely passive in this process.
Haven’t we heard enough of this? This is another effort to have legislators standing between doctors and patients, where they don’t belong. (Kind of like the Supreme Court in the Carhart case.)
As you may recall from this very blog, one real problem faced by women in abusive relationships is trying to avoid coerced pregnancy. The solution? Increasing access to low and no cost-contraception and emergency contraception. Considering that Wisconsin scored an Unsatisfactory on our Women’s Health Report Card, a much better use of legislators’ time would be solving the real problems faced by Wisconsin’s women.
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