South Carolina to Require Women View Ultrasounds Prior to Abortion

South Carolina appears poised on the brink of approving legislation that will require women to view ultrasound images prior to abortion. While all three (yes, that's right, all three) abortion clinics in South Carolina perform ultrasounds to determine the age of the fetus, the law would require women to view the images, with the probable exemption of rape and incest victims.

Why? According to the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Greg Delleney,

She can determine for herself whether she is carrying an unborn child deserving of protection or whether it’s just an inconvenient, unnecessary part of her body and an abortion fits her circumstances at that time.

South Carolina law already requires the ultrasound, as well as doctor counseling of the age and development of the fetus, as well as alternatives to abortion. This is nothing more than a bald-faced attempt at intimidation and emotional manipulation of someone who is already in a vulnerable position.

The thing that baffles me the most is, what? You're going to suddenly see an ultrasound image and decide that no, all the reasons you have for an abortion have flown out the window, and really it's a great time to be a mother, hooray? Are we suddenly going to see social services increase in funding? Are we going to have outstanding health care, job retraining, free and good state-sponsored child-sitting services? Is South Carolina going to suddenly take away every single obstacle that exists to bearing and caring for a child, so that the only barrier remaining is whether or not a woman thinks this is the right time for her, without consideration to financial/economic concerns?

Yeah, that's what I thought.
-Kelly Hills

Abortion Travel

Helsingin Sanomat of Finland reports that Finnish officials are set to crack down on travel by women who are past the 24th week of pregnancy. Late term abortions are illegal in Finland - after the 24th week - unless there is a "serious threat to the mother's health." So, women sometimes seek to travel to other European Union countries where late term abortion is less regulated. Technically, travel in the last few weeks of pregnancy by air, water, and rail is made difficult by transportation rules and by carriers. But Finland has been discussing expanding the authority of the state to keep pregnant women from leaving the country for such services. Aside from the practical complexity of such a rule, the annual national doctor's convention in Helsinki discussed the ethical issues; Ursula Vala (long time bioethics voice in Finland) said that "a doctor who reported such a patient to the authorities would probably be in violation of doctor-patient confidentiality."

Finland is roughly the size of a bar of soap, but it had 800 abortions past the 12th week in 2003, a significant enough number to make this a public health as well as ethical and medical issue.

Prenatal Protection Act and a Tragedy in Michigan

A 16 year boy has been charged with a felony under the Michigan's Prenatal Protection Act for helping end his girlfriend's pregnancy by hitting her in the abdomen with a baseball bat. The girlfriend, who was six months pregnant at the time had her boyfriend hit her repeatedly with a 22-inch souvenir bat over a two-week period in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy. She subsequently gave birth to a stillborn infant. The boy was charged, the girlfriend was not. Pam Sherstad, spokesperson for Right to Life of Michigan, said that the 1999 state law's provision exempting pregnant women from prosecution was added so that the law does not conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Art Caplan, said that the girl should be charged with "planning, plotting or conspiring to murder," but he added that "it's tough to do because the law takes a different view of developing potential life than it does of actual life. If the boy was charged with murder, she probably would be facing charges, too." -- Linda Glenn

Confessions of an Abortion Doctor

A first person account of the moral conviction that motivates one physician to provide abortion services, and the ambiguity surrounding many cases.

One morning years ago, when I was working as a resident, a nurse brought me in to talk to a pregnant girl. When I walked into the room, there was this child -- an 11-year-old. She had come in for a procedure, and it soon became obvious that she had no understanding of sex -- she didn't really understand that she'd even had it, or that it had any connection to her pregnancy. We literally had to teach this girl about what it means to have sex -- about STDS, abstinence, and pregnancy. I remember thinking: In a world where people don't want kids to learn about these things, how can you not give them the choice to terminate a pregnancy? Even if she had chosen to continue the pregnancy and opt for adoption, what would that have done to her own childhood? How can we not provide a child with any education about sex, then force her to become a parent long before she's ready? ...

I have the utmost respect for life; I appreciate that life starts early in the womb, but also believe that I'm ending it for good reasons. Often I'm saving the woman, or I'm improving the lives of the other children in the family. I also believe that women have a life they have to consider. If a woman is working full-time, has one child already, and is barely getting by, having another child that would financially push her to go on public assistance is going to lessen the quality of her life. And it's also an issue for the child, if it would not have had a good life. Life's hard enough when you're wanted and everything's prepared for. So yes, I end life, but even when it's hard, it's for a good reason.

How to Get Depressed

Have and abortion, or delay putting your loved one into hospice. [Healthorbit]

Planned Parenthood Under Seige

Family.org reports that several school districts are piling on the efforts of pro-life groups to remove Planned Parenthood entirely from any role whatever in school districts. It's the old saw, condoms and abortion discussion. If we could just get people to quit learning the words 'condom' and 'abortion', you see, sex would stop entirely.

Pro-Life? Show it with Child Health Policy

Mark Tushnet, a constitutional law scholar, argues carefully that the most important question about pro-life positions is their coherence. He demonstrates that the problem with pro-life arguments is that they are at best backed up by nominal support for "pregnancy crisis" centers, or for support of children in adoptions. Where is the committed right wing effort to decrease the amount of suffering among children of poor health? Then Governor Bush was much criticized in the 2000 election for the failure of his Texas administration to implement serious child health coverage reforms, for example.

And today? Though there is little federal information about abortion's prevalence during the first W. Bush administration, Christian ethicist Glen Stassen discusses the data that suggests that abortions have dramatically increased since President Bush took office. Perhaps the fear that women quite obviously (and rightly) have about the lack of sufficient child care might play more than a minor causal role in this pretty interesting correlation. (thanks to metafilter.

Last Minute Abortion Language in the Budget

An 11th hour provision was added to a spending bill that is needed to keep federal agencies up and running. Most of the language is a continuation of past years. The new language would give "conscience protection" to physicians who oppose abortion. -Dominic Sisti

RU-486 Suspension

Is it coming?

Choice? What Choice?

Arlen Specter is up for Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is one place many in Washington (and lots of other places) expect W to spend some of his "political capital" on limiting or even reversing Roe v. Wade. Specter is on record as being pro-choice. So, already the key Republican in favor of embryonic stem cell research, he decided he'd be clear with the media about his view of Roe. You can just guess what the conservative protestants thought about that idea - they decided maybe the Senator would not be the best guy to run the nomination process for new judges. National Review suddenly called him 'our own worst enemy', and LifeSite said he 'Borked himself'. Conservative Voice said he would be a disaster in the role. And these are just stories from the past three days. But remember, Specter is a prosecutor by training and long experienced. So he adroitly responded to Karl Rove's phone calls by talking to Judy Woodruff on Monday and let Bush and us know that:

I led the fight to confirm Justice Thomas and I almost lost my seat as a result of it in the United States Senate. And every one of President Bush's nominees I have supported in the committee and on the floor.

The fate of Roe is at maybe its most delicate point since the Casey decision that came out of Specter's home state. Here's hoping the Senator fights for choice half as hard as he will have to fight to get this job.

Around the World News

It is a huge day for bioethics news.

Interesting non-U.S. perspective on the positioning of Bush and Kerry on embryonic stem cell research and abortion, finds that there is great confusion and deception in both campaigns.

Jakarta Post announces a national bioethics body for Indonesia.

They must love George in the U.K., where he has just attacked their stem cell policy, reports The Times London.

LifeNews reports that the Dutch law extending euthanasia to children is being attacked in several ways in public policy forums.

National Review on Kerry on Abortion

Dr. Kathleen Raviele, a Georgia obstetrician, on Abortion & Election 2004 on National Review Online.