Quoting a friend here....

[digitaldiscipline]

http://bit.ly/d5cl4U

Want to know why you SHOULD be disgusted with the legislature of Oklahoma?

1. They just passed a law making it legal for doctors to lie to patients. This law is intended to "protect handicapped fetuses" however it has the intention to prevent parents from making informed decisions about continuing, or not, a pregnancy given all the information about their fetus. In other words a doctor might know your fetus has Downs or other genetic abnormalities but can knowingly keep that information from you. And be protected by Oklahoma law. So if a doctor decided to tell a woman that birth control causes STDs, would that be protected by law too? The precedent is there. A patient's only recourse would be to petition the AMA to remove such a doctor's license.

2. If you decide to have an abortion for any reason you will be subjected to a vaginal ultrasound (shame on the newspapers for using the word "invasive" and avoiding the word "vaginal"). Then you will be given a "mental health evaluation" to establish that you weren't "coerced into getting an abortion." This is required even for victims of rape and incest. I can think of one other word that describes sticking something in a vagina against a person's will or with the threat of unpleasant/threatening repercussions.

Comments

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

Lately I've been pretty damn disgusted with the whole gorram United States.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i understand that some in DC might want to sue AZ now.

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[y2kdragon.livejournal.com]

It may be "legal" for a doctor to lie, but it is absolutely unethical. And to be honest, I couldn't ever trust a doctor that thinks this law is a good idea.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking. Maybe they grow doctors differently in the US, but no British doctor I've ever met (I'm a hospital administrator, so that's a lot) would follow that law because it would interfere with their ethics.

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

Heh. Good to see someone's reading....

[etcet.livejournal.com]

and seething, and sharing. *sigh*

[rocknrazrbld.livejournal.com]

this is all just wrong. especially for a doctor to be aloud to lie to you. I do slightly agree with mental evaluation, but ore over post abortion counceling because it can be emotionally damaging and I can see where they want to make sure a girl isnt being forced to get an abortion. and a vsginal ultrasound is the medical norm for early pregnancy.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Uh, no it's not. I've had one live birth and one abortion and did not have a vaginal ultrasound for either. The only time an ultrasound had to be done vaginally was when I was not pregnant and they were looking for cancer.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

In the regular run of things, ultrasounds are only done vaginally if they are unable to get a good view of what they're looking at the "regular" way - at least in Canada and the UK.

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

Transvaginal ultrasounds are not medically necessary for abortions. That's all that needs to be considered here. No exceptions were made for rape victims. Surely you can see the extreme cruelty here.

Another thing that can be very emotionally damaging: being forced to have a child you don't want. Also: finding out the baby your doctor told you was perfectly healthy in fact has severe chromosomal abnormalities that were detected while you were pregnant.

[timswar.livejournal.com]

Yeah...

Oklahoma and Arizona seem to be trying to out-Texas Texas in the last month or two.

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

Texas' governor is doing his best to try and keep Texas' reputation for the crazy. This is just the latest: http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2010/04/perrys_coyote_h.html

[drcuriosity]

My fiancee just sent me the coverage here:
http://jezebel.com/5525617/oklahoma-passes-strictest-abortion-law-protects-doctors-who-lie-to-women

Yeah, fuck Oklahoma. Our list of "states to never live in" is increasing.

.....

[maelstromsl.livejournal.com]

Is it an ironic overload to say that this has me considering forming my OWN militia??? Women are people with rights too, you know... all those crazy fucks going on and on about their rights then trampling on women seems pretty weird, but I guess they have their "sky bully" behind them so they don't have to worry about those messy details....

Re: .....

[sor-eye-ah.livejournal.com]

Oh and on another note... In a huge number of cases where a disabled child is born, the dad fucks off and is never heard of again.

Give the mother a choice, she'll be left holding the baby at the end of the day.

(Note: My Dad is still with my Mum, so this isn't an opinion based on my own life as some of you may be thinking)

[sor-eye-ah.livejournal.com]

As the sister of a person born with severe disabilities, I'd be reluctant to condemn even my worst enemy to such a life, let alone bringing a child into a world where they will perpetually suffer at the same 'protective hands' that continued their life.

Where will the law be when these kids are picked on, stoned in the street, have their family fall apart around them or are crying themselves to sleep at night wishing to god they'd never been born.

I'm sure if my brother had the choice he'd never inflict it upon another person. I can also say for every day of my life, I'd happily give up 10 years, just so he could have one day as a 'normal' person. Nobody understands what this is until they've been there. Whoever made this law is a very sad person indeed.