On March 30, 2012, Kenna Froehlich wrote an entry to her blog titled, "Law on Abortion" in which she discusses a new law that was recently passed requiring doctors who are performing abortions to perform an ultrasound and show the mother ultrasound pictures before continuing with the abortion. Her position on the issue is that she is in favor of this new law and believes that it is necessary for women to see these images as to "...understand what they are doing and how it not only affects them but that unborn baby." I do not agree with my colleague or this new law.
I believe that this new law violates a woman's right to choose, and as of right now, a woman still has that right, does she not? Before this new law was passed, it was a requirement that doctors perform ultrasounds and then offer to show the mother the images, but now they're requiring it? What about the men/teenage boys who are partly responsible for the creation of the fetus? What happens to them? They aren't legally bound to be there for their pregnant partner and they aren't legally bound to be forced to see an ultrasound image of their unborn child either. This law is an attack on women's rights. If I have the choice to decide to have or not have an abortion, I should also keep my choice on whether to see or not see the ultrasound picture.
I do agree with my colleague when she points out that prevention should be taken more seriously, but I do not agree with why. Texas has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country and, as in most states, Texas uses scare tactics and abstinence only sex education programs to teach youths about sex, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted disease/infections. This approach is NOT working. We should be teaching teens the facts about sex and anything related to the outcomes associated with having unprotected sex or having sex too early in life. I am in no way suggesting that we arm teens with condoms and tell them to have sex, but teens are going to have sex regardless of what their parents, teachers, counselors, or doctors tell them, right? Modifying sex education programs across our state might be the key to solving the teen pregnancy rates and also preventing abortions. However, I still stand by my beliefs that abortion is the choice of the mother and she should not be subjected to anything that could sway her away from that choice, nor should she be swayed away from bringing her pregnancy to term. Either way, the choice to have a baby or terminate a pregnancy rests solely on the shoulders of the mother.
My colleague also states that rape victims should not have to be subjected to images of her ultrasound, but unfortunately, this new law would require it regardless of the situation. There are several commercials and ads out there "offering help" to women who become pregnant and don't know what to do. These programs are not what they seem. These programs are actually set up to convince the mother to keep her child whether she has the money to support a child or not, or whether she's been the victim of a rape or not. Sure, there's always the choice of adoption, but that is very emotionally traumatic for a mother, especially if she is a victim of rape, and she should not be forced to endure that if she does not want to.
All in all, this new law is a bad idea and is just another way to give pro-life groups, who failed to get laws passed making abortion illegal, a chance to force their beliefs onto women.
I strongly agree with your sentiments here! This is absolutely just another example of the many men in government trying to tell women what is right for their bodies. There is a campaign to post all of your female related questions on our politician's Facebook pages to cause them to realize the seriousness and the silliness of their interference. You cannot claim to want smaller government and pass laws like this. I agree that this law is an invasive intrusion into what should be a private decision between a women and her doctor.
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