South Dakota was just the beginning

March 10, 2006

Opponents of abortion rights seem to believe they’re on a roll and want to keep the momentum going in advance of the 2006 election. South Dakota’s sweeping new ban on abortion is the effort that’s getting plenty of attention, but consider the measure working its way through Indiana’s state legislature.

Indiana is a step closer to requiring doctors to tell women about to undergo abortions that life begins at conception.

A committee in the General Assembly is considering whether to endorse a new version of House Bill 1172, which deals with the written information women must receive before having an abortion. The controversial stipulation regarding the start of human life, intended to reduce the number of abortions in Indiana, was approved in the House 70-30 last month, with the support of 21 Democrats. The requirement was removed in the Senate version of the bill but came back Wednesday during a meeting of a conference committee trying to pin down a final version.

Abortion-rights groups have protested this part of the bill since it was introduced in late January, saying it would require doctors to present a personal opinion as medical fact. Hoping to rescue the original language, Indiana Right to Life’s chief lobbyist, Dick Thompson, suggested doctors tell women that “physical life” begins at conception instead.

The newest version of the bill also requires doctors to tell women the fetus may feel pain during the abortion, although Planned Parenthood of Indiana says there is no proof that pain will occur before the 20th week of pregnancy, which is when more than 90 percent of Indiana abortions occur. What’s more, Michael McKillip, Planned Parenthood’s director of legislative affairs, added, “To suggest to a woman, where no science is evident, that it is possible to feel pain before 20 weeks is nothing short of harassment.”

If the measure becomes law in Indiana, look for other states to pick up on the exact same idea.

Anti-choicers are busy in Tennessee too.

  • My fellow Americans really embarrass me. And are an embarrassment for this once great nation.

  • I’ve given up even trying to discuss this rationally with people. I only hope that there are plenty of quietly sane people out there who, like me, may not wish to argue, but will gladly stand in a voting booth and put these whackos where they belong. (Preferably on a barge leaving the country).

    The last time I let myself get sucked in to even discussing it I ended up taking about 20 minutes of berating. Finally, in exasperation, I said, “I am honestly thrilled you are turning back the clock.” Why? “Because you will eventually turn it back to the point where it is legal and socially acceptable for a person like me to beat a person like you in public with my walking stick.”

    -jjf

  • I’ve always wondered about where these doctors who tell women that abortion is no big deal live and work?

    Aren’t most women honestly counselled about abortion in this country already?

  • I say bring it on. Access to abortion is so eroded at this point that in far too many places it is a right in name only anyways.

    Here is a breakdown of what Americans think about the legality of abortion overall:

    19 percent say abortion should be legal in all cases;
    35 percent say it should be legal in most cases;
    24 percent say abortion should be illegal in most cases;
    15 percent say it should be illegal in all cases.

    I think they’re seriously overreaching because they *believe* most people feel as they do. People are overwhelmingly supportive of exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. The majority of Americans are pro-choice, whether or not they label themselves that way.
    The anti-choice folks have a lot more to lose by pushing their agenda this way than we do at this point. I hope they’re ready for the potential voter backlash.

  • Bush – the great divider. He really did it, didn’t he?
    I wonder if we can ever close the gaping chasm
    between the reds and the blues now. Seems like
    it’s open warfare, on a number of issues and
    fronts. It will be a miracle if we don’t wind up
    hating each other’s guts.

    A spiritual, intellectual civil war for sure.

    I hate to admit it, but I’m getting so I just can’t
    stand the people on the other side. They are
    just too much in my face with their arrogance,
    their pomposity, their holier-than-thou attitudes,
    their gloating, smirking and swaggering. And
    belligerence and loud mouths. And so on.

  • ZoeKentucky – where is that poll from? Seems reasonable although I wonder what “most cases” means and if it was defined in the poll questions.
    The absolute intrusiveness of the Indiana bill is staggering. Not only are they intruding into a woman’s decision about her own body and really her own destiny, but they are making the doctor give statements to the woman, as the P/P guy said, that have no scientific support. Scary stuff.

  • I’d be curious to see how those mandatory statement laws are worded?

    What prevents a doctor from saying to a patient “As you are considering an abortion, state law mandates me to tell you that [ this and that [use droning voice] ] which, as a qualified doctor I can tell you, is complete BS with no ground whatsoever in reality” ?

  • There was a politician a few years back whom I can’t remember, but who had a great quote on the subject:

    “Conservatives believe life begins at conception and ends at birth.”

    This president who is so adament about ending abortion because he cares so much for human life, signed a law while he was governor of Texas that allowed the state to pull the plug on terminally ill patients.

  • The upcoming elections have the promise of being a bitter category 5 storm.
    People are angry and unable to find common ground, especially on Abortion and Gay rights. The repulicans have precious few issues left with voters that can bring out loyal support on election day and they are fanning the flames of conflict.

    Our departure from democratic values ( appreciating diversity, sharing wealth and power, and respect for the opposition) is leading America into it’s own civil war.

  • The politician who coined the phrase “Conservatives believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth” was U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts). He was referring to Republicans’ opposition to WIC and other federal child welfare programs.

    I agree that abortion may become this year’s wedge issue, because right-wing anti-choice legislators in many Midwestern states have decided that their Hour Has Come Round At Last and that God wants them to ignore both polls and voters in order to save innocent embryos. As my fellow Hoosier Kurt Vonnegut would say, “Lots of luck to them, and lots of luck to God.”

  • Since the statement “life begins at conception” is a religious one, don’t see how it could ever be legal to require doctors to tell their patients that since it might go against the doctors’ religious beliefs. The right wingers don’t get to have it both ways(much as they want to)-if it is legal for pharmacists/doctors not to prescribe birth control due to their beliefs, then it has to be legal for doctors who might perform an abortion not have to tell a patient something that goes against their beliefs.

  • I’ve always thought the phrase “Life begins at Conception” is a bit of a cop-out.

    First, the egg and cell are alive before Conception.

    Second, shouldn’t it be “Human Life begins at Conception”?

    Third, so what, a cell mass that hasn’t even differentiated doesn’t balance against a grown woman deserving of rights

    Forth, or are you trying to argue that “Before I formed you in the Womb I knew you” means God has endowed an unformed mass of cells a soul?

    Fifth, if so, HALF of the conceptions you are talking about are going to fail to implant and die. Do you believe that abortions go to Hell because they are not baptised? So does God send half of the souls he creates straight to Hell?

    bounce those ideas off the next Theocratic Conservative to cross your path.

  • Lance,

    Regarding #5 _

    It varies. In some cases, a woman is handed pamphlets that outline different options and told they can call if they have questions.

    In others, it’s required to talk it over with someone.

    In still others, it’s required that you and the man who got you pregnant attend classes that discuss safe sex, protections options, options now that you are pregnant, etc.

    In all (or most) there is a certain amount of time that must pass before you can even make an appointment to safely get the procedure.

  • “In all (or most) there is a certain amount of time that must pass before you can even make an appointment to safely get the procedure.” – whoooozat

    On the other hand, unless it is chemically induced, abortions are often delayed so that the doctor has something to get a hold of during a surgical abortion.

    Botched abortions usually having involved cutting up the woman rather than the fetus.

    Modern advances such has ultrasound have made earlier surgical abortions safer and easier, which is better for the woman.

  • I’m certain I’m repeating myself here. But there wingnuts really believe that life begins at EJACULATION.

    I’m not kidding.

    Every sperm, indeed, is sacred to these clowns.

    It’s official Catholic doctrine, at least. I don’t know how the Fundies feel about masturbation, but my guess is they’re against it.

    This whole abortion thing is a subterfuge. These people aren’t anti-abortion. They are anti-sex. It’s Puritanism of the first and highest order: the deep fear that someone, somewhere, might be enjoying themselves.

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