Talking Points for a Woman’s Right to Know
- Abortion is a major, life-effecting decision, which is being presently made by many women in the Commonwealth in an informational vacuum.
- This Woman’s Right to Know bill gives a woman considering abortion the right to know the medical risks of abortion, alternatives to abortion, and nonjudgmental, scientifically accurate medical facts about the development of her unborn child before making this permanent, life-effecting decision.
- Without full disclosure, “choice” is only a political slogan. Advocates of legal abortion who are truly “pro-choice” will welcome this legislation. It guarantees women access to the facts, information and options that are essential components of genuine “choice.”
- To allow the abortion provider, who may have a financial interest at stake, sole discretion about what information to provide violates common sense.
- Public opinion overwhelmingly supports informed consent. In a national Wirthlin poll (November 13-15, 1992), 89% of Americans said they support informed consent laws.
- The 24-hour reflection period is a crucial part of this legislation. It allows the woman some time to weigh her decision and its alternatives. Certain sterilization procedures require a 30-day wait in Virginia – and that procedure can be reversible. An abortion in never reversible.
- This legislation does not restrict a woman’s access to abortion. Rather, it protects her right to be informed prior to her making this irreversible decision.
- “… The waiting period is surely a small cost to impose to ensure that the woman’s decision is well-considered in light of its certain and irreparable consequences on fetal life, and the possible effects on her own.” (Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 462 U.S. 416, 474 (1983))
- If tobacco companies are required to warn of the links between smoking and cancer, is the public’s right to smoke being “restricted?” Or is the government protecting its citizens by providing this information? Only an egregious abuse of both logic and language would confuse more information, and time to absorb that information, with a loss of freedom. In an enlightened democracy, one usually presupposes that access to information is a guarantor of real freedom.
- The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld as constitutional laws that protect the right of a woman to know the medical risks of abortion, its alternatives, and scientifically accurate medical facts about the development of her unborn child. Fifteen states have passed informed consent laws similar to the one being proposed in Virginia.
- Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have testified before Committee that they already provide women with facts and options. If that is so, then why object to a bill that would ensure that all women in the Commonwealth receive the same information?
- The Woman’s Right to Know bill will empower all women in the Commonwealth who are considering abortion with the information they need to make an informed choice.
Published in VSHL Lifesaver, January 2001
|
| VSHL Home |
| What's New |
| About VSHL |
| Education |
| Legislation |
| Elections |
| Press Releases |
| Action Items |
| Miscellaneous |
| Links |