Friday 30 April 2010

Ultrasound before abortion

Oklahoma has passed laws to ensure that women about to have an abortion must see an ultrasound of their baby an hour before the operation.

Here's the New York Times report.

The arguments against include the idea that such a move is unconstitutional because it infringes the physician's right to free speech if he is required to describe the foetus. Which seems a bit desperate, to say the least.

Seems to me the mother is being forced to confront the human identity of the one about to die by her decision, which is no bad thing.

The best thing would be to outlaw abortion altogether, but the current view of the US Supreme Court is that this can't be done.

1 comment:

Alexb said...

Are you serious? If abortions are banned, it will just drive the practice underground, thus increasing the risk (and cost) to the mother.

Also from the article: "No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims." So if the mother is a rape victim, she is then forced to confront the product of the violence done to her. No bad thing indeed...