A law concerning life and death was passed in Oklahoma on Wednesday, April 27. The new law requires all women seeking to have an abortion to be given an ultrasound by their doctor. They are required to look at the pictures and be given a full description of their baby’s features and heartbeat before the procedure can take place. According to a FoxNews.com article, this has caused disruption in Oklahoma’s abortion clinics.
“We’ve had patients leave the ultrasound room in tears because of what they had to hear,” said Linda Meeks, executive director of Reproductive Services of Tulsa, in the article.
So why is this law such a problem? Why the controversy? Is it infringing upon the mother’s rights? Not so. This law is accommodating for expectant mothers and should be implemented in all 50 states.
Oklahoma’s new law is helpful for pregnant women in more ways than one. It shows the mother their living baby, which lawmakers say will prevent women from having the abortion, resulting in post-abortion complications. Women going into abortion clinics are often misinformed of the side effects of having an abortion. Many who have had abortions are afterward found with bowel or bladder injuries, infection, future miscarriages or infertility. Some women go through Post-Abortion Syndrome, where women have reoccurring images of the abortion process, sleep disturbance and depression. Hearing the heartbeat of their baby and seeing its face and tiny body will help them avoid such gruesome complications.
Second, having the mother see the baby and hear its physical description helps a woman who has been a victim of rape and incest to think clearly. One percent of women who have abortions are victims of rape or incest, and they go to the clinics hoping to remove the reminder of the horrific incident. Seeing the baby serves as a reminder that this is a separate human being and should not be punished for someone else’s sins.
The law has abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood personnel all across Oklahoma in an outrage. They are claiming that the law is unfair to the poor victims of incest and rape.
“To have to undergo that, and no exemption made for [rape and incest victims] is even worse,” Dr. Dana Stone from Planned Parenthood said in an interview with CNN.
Is this really their concern? What are these people so afraid of? Could it be that these pro-choice people are afraid of women making educated choices? Since women are merging into the marketplace of ideas, why should women be forced to make an uneducated decision about having an abortion?
No longer will women be in the dark. This law has helped to educate women on the truth of abortion and should be implemented in all of the United States.
