1013 - National Right to Life Act

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Nay on the amendment and consider me a cosponsor on this bill.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Nay

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

amendment

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Why should we reduce the time allotted in section 5 from 7 days to 36 hours and what is the purpose of changing the final sentence?

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

My primary objections aside, section five is not only unnecessary but also extremely condescending toward women who would almost certainly already know the alternatives to terminating a pregnancy.

All the cosponsors of this bill are male, so I can't say I'm surprised that few here understand how real women think.  But, I would insist there are better ways to encourage adoption than to impose a hardly enforceable, arbitrary waiting period.  No one's going to sit and read a bunch of literature about abortion (which may or may not factual, considering this bill doesn't even identify the source of these "materials" or what's included in them).

So really the only reason it's in the bill is to further inconvenience women.  Which I understand is keeping with the spirit of the bill.

What is it that you know about how real women think that the rest of us supposedly don't?  That they are pure rational actors with perfect knowledge of all possibilities?  Women, like men, can get overwhelmed by their situation and may not recognize everything open to them or how to go about it.  They have surely thought about what their their options are, but that doesn't mean they have the knowledge available to them that would help them to make a truly informed decision. It doesn't hurt to give them the information on how to go about it, because maybe they did not know how, or didn't think they had the resources necessary for it, or were under the false impression that for whatever reason no one would want to adopt their baby.

A hell of a lot, obviously, because the decision to terminate a pregnancy is a deeply serious one.  They don't need the state to lecture them about adoption when that choice is already ingrained in our culture, and they certainly shouldn't need a prescribed waiting period to be trusted with their own healthcare decisions and can find information from their own doctors.  At this point, it's not even about protecting life - it's declaring that a woman is incapable of making her own decisions unless the government tells her to "sit and ponder it for a while."  If passed, this bill would make abortion the only medical procedure where government issues the second opinion - even though it is clinics which are best equipped to inform women and provide them assurance, and other social services that give information and resources.

Why I support a 7 day waiting period is for the counseling. Putting more information in the hands of our citizens may lead to wiser decisions regardless if they choose to abort or choose life. I also think the perspective father should be able to step in to preserve the life of the child if they really want to be a father. It's wrong that the mother gets a monopoly on such a life and death decision. The man's contribution to the creation of the baby in the womb in this choice is wrongly disregarded.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Aye on Shua's amendment

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Second motion for final vote.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Aye,

The right to life is our most fundamental right because it is the first right given by our Creator.