Campus Dakota

The Union => Spout => Topic started by: gh on March 23, 2011, 05:15:17 PM

Title: New SD law that requires 3 day-wait for abortion
Post by: gh on March 23, 2011, 05:15:17 PM
An article was recently published in the Fargo Forum about the SD governor signing a new requiring a 3-day wait for an abortion. 
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/313264/
Here's the article:
Quote
PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a law Tuesday requiring women to wait three days after meeting with a doctor to have an abortion, the longest waiting period in the nation.

Abortion rights groups have already said they plan to file a lawsuit challenging the measure, which also requires women to undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortions.

Daugaard, who gave no interviews after signing the bill, said in a written statement that he has conferred with state attorneys who will defend the law in court and a sponsor who has pledged private money to finance the state's legal costs.

"I think everyone agrees with the goal of reducing abortion by encouraging consideration of other alternatives," the Republican governor said the statement. "I hope that women who are considering an abortion will use this three-day period to make good choices."

Supporters of the measure say South Dakota's only abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, gives women little information or counseling before they have abortions done by doctors flown in from out of state. The bill would help make sure women are not being coerced into abortions, they said.

Opponents say the law forces women to go to pregnancy help centers to that harass them, rather than providing sound medical advice. They also say the waiting period and the counseling are an undue burden for women who have a constitutional right to have an abortion.

The law, which takes effect July 1, says an abortion can only be scheduled by a doctor who has personally met with a woman and determined she is voluntarily seeking an abortion. The procedure can't be done until at least 72 hours after that first consultation.

Before getting an abortion, a woman also will have to consult with a pregnancy help center to get information about services available to help her give birth and keep a child. The state will publish a list of pregnancy help centers, all of which seek to persuade women to give birth.

About half the states, including South Dakota, now have 24-hour waiting periods, said Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. No other state requires women to visit pregnancy crisis centers before getting abortions, she said.

The South Dakota Legislature has passed several other measures restricting abortions in the past decade.

Voters rejected statewide ballot measures in 2006 and 2008 that would have banned most abortions in the state. Those measures sought to provoke a court challenge of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.

A 2005 law passed by the Legislature already requires that women be told that an abortion will end the life of a human being. That law remains tied up in a court appeal.

What do you think of this new law? I feel very angry against this. I feel that SD and ND are both very rural and if someone from a rural town is going to go to the only place in the state to get an abortion, they are not going to want to make the trip a couple times. Also, I think that they would look into other options on their own. It's not like deciding to have an abortion is an easy choice.

Also, since the article mentioned the doctors are flown in from out-of-state, I think it's going to make the process a lot harder. What doctor is going to want to stay for 3 days if he is only scheduled for 1 or 2 in a row?It's going to make it very difficult for abortions to be performed since the bill states that it has to be done by the doctor that met with the patient in the first place.

I think that there are some major dangers to this bill that could really end up hurting people. Maybe a pregnant woman will try to find out ways to hurt herself to cause an abortion or take an overdose on drugs. Maybe she will have it done illegally in some shady place where there is no sterile equipment and she gets in infection that spreads through her bloodstream. And I think that the emotional toll will also be a burden. Let's say that a young woman goes to have an abortion, but because of all this pressuring to not have an abortion, she decides not to. Now the child is born, but she decides she wants nothing to do with him/her, and she neglects the child, abuses the child, or even starves the child. Yeah, you might persuade her into giving birth to the child, but you're not talking her into raising a child and being a responsible parent because she wants to go on with her life as if no child was ever born.

What are your thoughts or comments on this topic?
Title: Re: New SD law that requires 3 day-wait for abortion
Post by: Sal Atticum on March 24, 2011, 03:19:57 PM
Agree, but I am not a woman and therefore will not get involved.
Title: Re: New SD law that requires 3 day-wait for abortion
Post by: pmp6nl on March 28, 2011, 06:51:39 PM
Agree, but I am not a woman and therefore will not get involved.

I am also in agreement.  However, as a medical professional that has seen the negative consequences with people not doing it the medical way, I am very concerned at what could happen.