Thought that the basic freedom of choice had already been battered and bruised enough? Apparently not.
Controversy surrounds the issue yet again, after a decision made by the General Assembly, a decision that further amends North Carolina’s already stringent abortion laws.
The new amendment, which passed despite the scarcely cumbersome hurtle of Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto, would require abortion providers to display and describe fetal images prior to the abortion. It would also require a 24-hour waiting period for women choosing to seek an abortion, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Woman’s Right to Know Act, as it is so fondly called in the Republican-dominated General Assembly, has stirred the pot in terms of national legal ramifications. So much so that it has garnered a hefty lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Planned Parenthood.
“Politicians have no business forcing healthcare providers to push a political agenda on their patients,” said Bebe Anderson, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Indeed, lawmakers don’t hesitate to put the constitutional rights of all parties involved in danger. Not only would doctors be expected to provide a voice of legislative ideology to their patients, but women seeking an abortion face a shockingly blatant intrusion on their private lives and health decisions.
“This bill keeps abortion legal,” said State Rep. Ruth Samuelson, Republican from Charlotte. “It keeps abortion safe. And, by golly, we know it helps make it more rare. It is still her choice. It makes it her informed choice.”
If there is one thing that will keep back-alley abortions a steady presence in our society, it is the criminalization that this abortion law imposes upon women who simply wish to exercise their freedom of choice.
If lawmakers truly want to make abortion an entirely safe process, the answer is not through treating these women as deviant criminals.
This safety can only be reached by giving them the respect and sensitivity they so rightfully deserve.
The Woman’s Right to Know Act, according to Katy Parker, legal director for the ACLU of NC Legal Foundation, “forces a doctor…to describe the embryo or fetus and put pictures in front of the woman’s face even if the woman says she doesn’t want to see them.”
Call me crazy, but this pathway to “informed choice” sounds a lot more like coercion and harassment.
“[The ultrasound provision] forces patients to allow their bodies to be treated as the source for government-mandated speech, treats women as less than fully competent adults, and chills the exercise of constitutional rights,” the lawsuit claims.
This exposes the root of all the uproar. For, what kind of law would advocate this intimidating provision?
Answer: the kind of law that sees women as less. The kind of law that treats women as children.
Women as a whole are no strangers to underestimation, even, surprisingly enough, in regards to their health. It is dumbfounding that a detached lawmaker can even start to regard a woman’s choice to have an abortion as a hasty, inconsiderate act.
If one were to grant women recognition of their full competent faculties, this new law would remain as nothing but a residual, unjust punishment.
I dare say that, if men were the subjects in question, their choice would be deemed as nothing but just that: a conscious decision.
Why should women be deprived of the same respect?
U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles, who is also the former Superior Court Judge of Guilford County, has issued a preliminary injunction, blocking immediate enactment of the law. In the meantime, the decisive validity of women in the eyes of state law must continue to hang in the balance.