S.D. Law Requiring Doctors To Tell Women Abortion Ends A Human Life 'Alarming,' Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 08 Jul 2008 - 9:00 PST

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South Dakota's 2005 law that requires physicians to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure will terminate the life of a human being is "alarming" if you "care about doctors' freedom of speech or their responsibility to give accurate information to patients," Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon writes in an opinion piece.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis recently ruled 7-4 that South Dakota can begin enforcing the law that requires physicians to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." According to Bazelon, physicians also are required to describe "all known medical risks of the procedure and statistically significant risk factors," including "depression and related psychological distress" and "increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide."

Bazelon writes that the "idea that a fetus is whole and separate will probably be news to a lot of women who have carried one," adding, "But what's more distressing, because the majority's reasoning is so strained, is the assertion that by defining a phrase one way, a state can erase its ambiguity and the variety of perceptions people bring to it." Sarah Stoesz -- president of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, which filed the lawsuit challenging the law -- said, "Our doctors are now being asked to say things they do not believe are true." Bazelon concludes, "Whatever you think about abortion, how is that a good thing?" (Bazelon, Slate, 7/2).

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