In Ohio, combine anti-choice zealotry, politics and stupidity...
Ohio Requires Abortion Doctors to Conduct Non-Existent Fetal Viability Tests on Women
March 5, 2015 by Rachel Ford 675 Comments
Conservatives are often lambasted for their ignorance of science and medicine, particularly when taken in combination with their desire to pass laws about these same topics. Pro-life gynoticians are particularly infamous for this
like Vito Barbieri, who graced his fellow Idaho state representatives with his musings about whether women could swallow a camera for remote gynecological exams.
Ohios anti-abortion warriors might have topped him, though, when it comes to sheer ignorance. Among a slew of abortion restrictions passed in the past few years is one that mandates that women seeking an abortion after 20 weeks must undergo a fetal viability test before having the procedure done. The problem?
The test doesnt exist.
NPR reports:
Then theres the states confusing requirement for a fetal viability test after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Fetuses are generally not considered viable until several weeks later. But Dr. Lisa Perriera, an OB-GYN at Preterm, says there is no such test.
The laws say that we have to do some kind of testing, she says. They dont tell us what kind of tests to do, nor do those tests even really mean anything. Its just another hoop to jump through.
Preterm came up with its own test based on a fetuss age and weight. But Kellie Copeland of NARAL Pro Choice Ohio says the law has prompted other clinics to simply stop doing abortions after 20 weeks.
Which, as it happens, is the goal of these abortion restrictions: an incremental move toward an absolute elimination of abortion. Even, apparently, if the means to that end are absurd.
Our goal ultimately is to live in a society where abortion is no longer even considered, says Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, whose offices overlook the statehouse in Columbus. Hes the key architect of a strategy even opponents call brilliant. Gonidakis calls his approach incremental and says its driven by concern for civil rights.
This has been the strategy of legislators in the past few years, and Ohios lawmakers are already resuming the iterative process with new restrictions this legislative cycle, including an out-and-out ban on abortion after 20 weeks. (Incidentally, fetuses arent generally viable until, at the very least, around the 24th week of pregnancy.)
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