Friday, April 18, 2008

Oh, the compassion.

Where would anyone get the idea that anti-choicers don't care about women? Maybe from things like this odious, execrable piece of, um, "legislation" that passed in Oklahoma yesterday. The bill would require even victims of rape and incest having abortions to get an ultrasound first:
"State legislators today voted to override Gov. Brad Henry's veto of an anti-abortion bill." [...]

"The bill would have required women to get an ultrasound of an unborn child before an abortion. The bill also was intended to protect health care providers' rights not to participate in abortions and decisions whether to dispense a pill to end early pregnancies. [...]

"While I support reasonable restrictions on abortion, this legislation does not provide an essential exemption for victims of rape and incest,” Henry wrote. "By forcing the victims of such horrific acts to undergo and view ultrasounds after they have made such a difficult and heartbreaking decision, the state victimizes the victim for a second time.”

SB 1879 requires that the woman be given a description of the ultrasound images and that medical providers display the ultrasound images so the woman can see them.

Nothing in the bill prevents the woman from "averting her eyes” from the ultrasound."

Yet.