New abortion law in South Dakota

[1]

If you're a woman in South Dakota who wants to get an abortion, you now are legally required to go through these steps:

1) Speak to the doctor.

2) Wait 72 hours.

3) Get counseled with anti-abortion propaganda at "Crisis Pregnancy Centers".

This makes getting abortions incredibly difficult for the following reasons:

1) There is only one Planned Parenthood building in South Dakota (it's in Sioux Falls), and the doctor there has to fly in from another state.

2) Crisis Pregnancy Centers are not required to give women seeking abortions paperwork that they can fill out to get abortions - not even the CP Cs that supported the passing of the bill.

Essentially, this makes it almost impossible for women to get abortions because of all the bureaucratic bullshit they'll have to go through, provided that the CPC will even agree to their request in the first place (which they won't). But, of course, what kind of ethical behavior did you expect from a group who wants to saddle women with unwanted pregnancies?

South Dakota, I am disappoint.

edited 12th May '11 4:56:55 PM by LilPaladinSuzy

Can they just go to another state?

@Hungry Joe - That takes a while. It costs more time and money to go to another state to get an abortion.

And if you're a woman who is under the age of consent, or a woman who lacks financial resources to travel, then leaving to another state is not exactly an option.

edited 12th May '11 5:33:30 PM by LilPaladinSuzy

I agree with 1) and 2). It's fairly obvious, one may assume, that one should consult their physician regarding a medical procedure. And a 3 day "grace period" isn't unreasonably either, in my opinion.

3) is a little iffy. But what really gets me is how and why it happens to be that, while getting counselling is mandatory, providing that counselling is not? Surely if the law stipulates women must be provided with counselling at those "crisis centers" those centers cannot, simply, refuse.

True, but at least it's possible.

And from the sounds of it, the savings in frustration would greatly outweigh the shrinking differnce in cost.

I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's so bad that going to another state would probably cost less period.

That doesn't make this rampant obstructionism acceptable.

Not at all.

@Great Lich - The problem with 3) is that Crisis Pregnancy Centers will always present pro-life propaganda. They are actually pro-life centers in disguise as "neutral sources". Furthermore, even if the woman puts up with the crap, they don't have to agree to her abortion request, which would be required if a woman wants to get an abortion.

Planned Parenthood does a fine enough job on their own with abortions and their risks. If a woman wants to get a second opinion from her doctor, that's her choice and not the state's. Same with a 72-hour "grace period." It does nothing for the woman's well-being and just postpones the operation they want. Also, the reason they included that in the South Dakota bill is because of the Sioux Falls doctor who only flies in to work once a week. Because a "grace period" has been forced on the women, many will miss out on any narrow chance they have of getting an abortion, even if they do somehow manage to make it past all the paperwork.

The requirements themselves don't sound too bad to me. Consult your doctor about an operation, that makes sense. A waiting period to make sure you don't make a hasty decision you'll later regret, also makes sense. Counselling also makes sense, although I can understand worries about the quality of it.

I don't like the idea of sending people for "counselling" which is almost guaranteed to be propaganda against the procedure your going for.

And the doctor will be there next week. If one has given the decision the careful thought it deserves then one week shouldn't make a difference.

I agree there's things wrong with this law, but "consult your doctor" and "take some time to think" are not those things.

I've read a bit about these counselling centers. I admit, I was kinda amused when I found out that some of them make women watch graphic abortion videos—if you can't watch it, you shouldn't be doing it. That said, I've also been informed that some of them have an explicitly Christian slant, which seems to be going too far.

Come to think of it, I was never actually informed what fraction of them those "some" were—are they all like that, or just a few of them?

I couldn't watch them crack open a sternum....does that mean I can't have open heart surgery?

I dunno, I haven't been to a slaughter house, should I not eat steaks? 1 and 2 are reasonable, 3 is incredibly silly.

Also, what happens in the case of an emergency? Waiting a week could potentially mean death.

Anyone want to be even more alarmed by this development? Check this out.◊

Having to wait three days is unreasonable when you have to work for a living, and you don't live in the town where the clinic is.

Not to mention that most places have hard limits where you can't get an abortion once you're past a certain number of weeks. So, discover your pregnancy late or spend a long time trying to decide and/or earn enough money + extra week = suddenly no abortion for you.

Plus 3 days waiting can mean three days of hotel bills = extra expense.

Plus, uh. I'm being optimistic and assuming most women don't just find out they're pregnant and go get an abortion the next day, so women already take the time to think it over before they even look into an abortion. Why do you need three days more on top of that?

It doesn't say you need to hang out for three days, only that three days or more need to go by. If the doc is only in once a week odds are you'll have to wait 2/3 weeks anyways.

@Great Lich - It's condescending to assume that a woman is somehow too stupid to make decisions about her own reproductive health without the law forcing her to make an unnecessary doctor visit and waiting three days "just to make sure." In many states, there are strict limits on when abortions are legal. Three days could be the difference between a possible abortion and forced pregnancy.

(I oppose forcing doctor visits and "grace periods" such as this on principle anyway. I don't think the government is qualified enough, or has the right to, make these sorts of decisions for people. Medicine is a personal matter and should be left to the individual to choose for him/herself, not left to the state to choose for everyone.)

Also, let's say that the woman has an ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency that will kill the woman and the fetus if she waits, and she must get an abortion as soon as possible. THERE IS NO PROVISION IN THE LAW FOR THAT.

@Loni Jay - Crisis Pregnancy Centers, as I've said before, are explicitly pro-life. Many women who have been suckered into them will attest to this. [1]

@feotakahari - Your reasoning is absurd. As other Tropers have pointed out, there are many medical surgeries shouldn't exactly be viewed by the squeamish. That doesn't mean they should be illegal.

Women do not get abortions because they are too dumb to understand the consequences, and they do not need "counseling." Women do not get abortions for the lulz. Women get abortions because they do not want to be pregnant and give birth to a child at that point in their life.

edited 12th May '11 8:44:11 PM by LilPaladinSuzy

If all else fails, back alley doctoring could be a growing career field.

edited 12th May '11 8:40:03 PM by MarkVonLewis

Text of the law.

...it indeed does not give exceptions for ectopic pregnancy and the like. That seems a bit much.

Eh, I'm against abortion and for restrictions on it, but this seems morally counterproductive to me. If an abortion is going to happen, might as well make it happen sooner so that it's further away from the black end of the moral scale.

Ah, yes, the latest law that murders women. There really do need to be clauses for medical emergencies. I had a friend who almost died of an ectopic pregnancy, and she'd been trying with her husband to have a child. If the doctors had to have waited three days she would be dead now.

Yeah, that's really, really disturbing. Same happened to my mom a couple years after I was born—she had an ectopic pregnancy that almost killed her.

(And, my childhood friend got pregnant as a teen due to the same reason the abused woman in that CPC link did: Antibiotics for a bladder infection that her doctor didn't warn her would interfere with the pill. Isn't it so nice that doctors think to mention these things? Because possibly accidentally getting pregnant is such a little minor whoopsie for a doctor to overlook.)