Texas Wants Women To Listen To Feotal Hearbeat Before Abortion
Posted by JeanneSager at 12:09 PM on March 4, 2009
Why Texas? Why?
Do you really think women who are headed in to have an abortion are all happy-go-lucky sorts who have no idea what they’re getting into?
Because leading members of Texas’ Republican Party are sponsoring a bill that would require women to sit through an ultrasound before an abortion, described in detail by the doctor, and (wait for it) require they listen to the feotal heartbeat. Oh, and if that’s not enough, they must sit idly while a doctor lectures them with some good old-fashioned anti-abortion literature.
According to the bill, the “pregnant woman may choose not to view the materials or avert her eyes.” How sweet. If that’s an option, how about just skipping the whole charade and letting women get on with it?
It’s supporters have made clear they are looking to reduce abortion numbers, but they’re also being careful throw a little “we’re helping to cut down on medical malpractice” spin in there.
“I think that this bill will protect women from being at the hands of a doctor who is not performing best practices,” study author Republican Sen. Dan Patrick said. But he’s certainly sticking with the party line – he goes on to say, “secondly, it may change the thinking of that woman if she decides to look at that ultrasound, to hear that heart beat.”
This move is right up there with North Dakota’s recent declaration that “personhood” is achieved at conception. Neither directly reverses Roe v. Wade, but they skirt the rights of a woman being trumped by that of an unborn feotus. As my colleague Kate recently pointed out, the right-to-life movement often neglects the idea that there is life AFTER birth.
The legislators who crafted this bill have no knowledge of a woman’s mental or physical health when she walks into an abortion clinic. They have no idea whether she’s been raped, had a condom break, gotten pregnant the day before her husband took off. But they are cocksure that listening to the heartbeat is going to change her mind; no matter the pain it inflicts.
Did these guys read the much-talked about Glamour piece on women who’ve gone through an abortion?
“In a perfect world, no woman would ever need to end a pregnancy,” Liz Welch said just last month. “But in reality, one in three women will have at least one abortion by the time she is 45, and these women run the gamut of ages, races, backgrounds and beliefs.”
So Texas, just to give you an update women might not feel guilty or even wrong for doing it, but it isn’t an easy choice. They don’t need to hear a heartbeat or be beaten over the head with literature and a detailed ultrasound description to know that.
Image: PatDollard.com
I can tell you right now it won’t work.
I honestly didn’t care when I saw either the ultrasound or heard the heart beat for the first time. (and both kids were wanted!)
I had to pretend I was interested because everyone expected me to be.
Truth is, I just don’t bond until it’s a person that I can see. Until then, it doesn’t mean anything to me emotionally.
Chances are, when a child is potentially not wanted, the mother won’t really care for the heartbeat either…
The issue is not whether it will “work.”
There women who ask to see their sonograms and are refused. Would a dentist refuse to show a patient her x-rays? Would an orthopedist refuse to show a patient his x-ray of a broken bone? Consent isn’t informed unless the patience has all of the available information that she wants to have.
In addition, many women experience trauma in this situation: They didn’t see an ultrasound prior to an abortion. When they see one of the baby they plan to carry to term, they are devasted because they realize that they have ended the life of a live human being.
And, many women change their minds about having the abortion — but sometimes they are too sedated to get up and leave, or they are told it is too late. I know women this has happened to.
Whatever.
Learn to take criticism of your writing content.