Oklahoma Is Sued Over Required Ultrasounds for Abortions

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/us/11abort.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


An advocacy group is suing over an Oklahoma law that prohibits a woman from having an abortion unless she first has an ultrasound and the doctor describes to her what the fetus looks like.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Oklahoma County District Court, the Center for Reproductive Rights says that the requirement intrudes on privacy, endangers health and assaults dignity.

The law, set to go into effect on Nov. 1, would make Oklahoma the fourth state to require that ultrasounds be performed before a woman can have an abortion and that the ultrasounds be made available to the patient for viewing, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a health research organization based in Washington. The other states are Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

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“I introduced the bill because I wanted to encourage life in society,” Mr. Lamb said. “In Oklahoma, society is on the side of life.”

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One provision of the law prohibits women from collecting damages based on claims that a baby born with defects would have been better off aborted. Abortion rights activists have said they fear that the provision could allow doctors to withhold information about abnormalities in the fetus that could lead to complications after birth.

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“Governments should stop playing doctor and leave medical determinations to physicians and health decisions to individuals,” Ms. Toti said.
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mr. lamb is a religiously insane busybody

[Debau2005]

1. Who is paying for these ultrasounds?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

2. What galls me is just how patronizing and paternalistic these jokers are

Amazing how conservatives, who ostensibly believe in personal responsibility and doing for yourself, immediately revert to this notion that women are feeble minded invalids who need them to tell us what we're doing. Why the hell can't I research on my own what a fetus looks like and what an abortion entails? They sure as shit don't feel the same way about people who were taken in my unscrupulous mortgage brokers. In that case it's, "well it was your responsibility to do due diligence!" But let some woman claim that she regrets her abortion and all of a sudden they're in favor of regulation and mandatory information.

[Orrex]

3. Maybe Conservatives should offer to pay for ultrasounds for pregnant women who plan to go to term.

I mean, it's lovely that Conservatives want to force expensive medical tests on women who, frankly, don't need them. I'd love for those same high-minded Conservatives to demand that ultrasound and other prenatal testing be made available for all pregnancies.

Of course, then it's Socialism...


And another thought: Maybe the doctor could just say "what you've got is a more-or-less undifferentiated mass of cells that looks kind of like a gloppy tadpole." Would that satisfy these busybody asshat Conservatives?

[juno jones]

4. How's about colonoscopy for all those who wish to run for public office?

We want make sure their head is not up their ass.