Whatâs Wrong Today:
The Indiana House is considering House Bill 1210, introduced by Indiana state Rep. Eric Turner
(R), that will make abortions illegal after 20 weeks. But this isnât the action
of one pro-life zealot, the Indiana Senate has already passed a similar bill, but it is awaiting similar action in the House.
The proposed bill is
typical of what is happening in Republican controlled state legislatures across
the country: It requires physicians to inform a pregnant woman seeking an
abortion that the fetus could feel pain and require patients to view an
ultrasound. A patient could get out of doing so only if she stated her refusal
in writing.
But the most
controversial portion of the bill is the part that would require doctors to
inform women about the risks of abortion, including “the possibility of
increased risk of breast cancer following an induced abortion and the natural
protective effect of a completed pregnancy in avoiding breast cancer.”
So Whatâs Wrong?
There is no increased risk of breast cancer associated
with induced abortion. In June 2009, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Gynecologic Practice wrote,
“Early studies of the relationship between prior induced abortion and
breast cancer risk were methodologically flawed. More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no
causal relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent
increase in breast cancer risk.
The
American Cancer Society (ACS) and other major health organizations, have rejected this theory. In
February 2003, the U.S. National Cancer Institute brought together “more
than 100 of the world’s leading experts who study pregnancy and breast cancer
risk.” They found that neither induced nor spontaneous abortions lead to
an increase in breast cancer risk. In fact, the risk is actually increased for
a short period after a woman carries a pregnancy to full term. According to
ACS, these findings were considered “well established,” which is the
highest level for scientific evidence.
Indiana isnât the only state to promote this theory. According to
the Guttmacher Institute, seven states — Alaska, Kansas, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia — now inaccurately
describe a possible link between abortion and breast cancer in written
counseling materials.
Indiana Right to Life has hailed 13 measures introduced into the
state legislature this session, calling it the “largest array of pro-life
legislation in recent history.” The group’s website states, “The
flood of legislation is a direct result of the dramatic change in leadership at
the Statehouse following the November elections.”
The main
concern here is the idea that it could ever be right or ethical to misstate the truth between doctor and patient. The GOP is now actively getting in the
middle of the relationship between a patient and her doctor.
With the passage of this bill in
Indiana, they will be requiring doctors to provide
outright falsehoods. But since Indiana’s
unemployment rate is 9.5%, why donât these legislators focus instead on adding
Indiana jobs?
Republicans
always say about national health care: “it is not the state’s right to tell
someone what they should do/not do with their bodiesâ, but the story flips when
it comes to being pro choice.
All of
a sudden there is a god-given right for government to do so!
And it that’s just WRONG!
âWelcome back to the fight. This time I
know our side will win.â (Victor Laszlo, Casablanca)
