Law Blocks North Dakota Doctors From Lying to Patients About Abortion Reversal
The Center for Reproductive Rights was recently granted an injunction against the state of North Dakota, blocking the state from forcing doctors to lie to their patients about the abortion pill. The law would have allowed doctors to tell women who received the abortion pill, that the abortion could be reversed. Apparently, it’s not the only state to pass such a law.
South Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Utah, the usual suspects, have all passed similar laws. But Chief Justice Daniel Hovland delivered a strong rebuke to the North Dakota law and wrote, “State legislatures should not be mandating unproven medical treatments, or requiring physicians to provide patients with misleading and inaccurate information.” He also noted the provisions of the law violate a physician's right not to speak and go far beyond informed consent laws addressed by the Supreme Court and other courts to date.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the American Medical Association and the state’s one and only abortion clinic, The Red River’s Women’s Clinic. Tammi Kromenaker, director of the clinic, said patients need to trust their providers, and any laws forcing them to mislead patients, would violate medical ethics and endanger the trust patients place in them.
Senior Counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights Marc Hearron released a statement, acknowledging the politics doctors have been thrown in the middle of as of late when it comes to abortion. “Across the country, doctors are being used as political pawns in the attack on abortion.” He added, “We all the right to free speech and to speak the truth. That doesn’t change because you’re a doctor who provides abortion care. Today, the court stepped in to protect the First Amendment rights of these physicians.”
The Realist Woman’s take:
The lengths these “pro-life” politicians go to in order to shit all over abortion rights is insane. I’d never heard of these laws until recently but they don’t surprise me. All I want to know is, what decent human wants a doctor to lie to their patients?! It’s just so incredibly ridiculous. I don’t know how they didn’t see this outcome from a mile away.
These “pro-life” men, I’m assuming they’re men because it’s always them scheming up ways to control women’s bodies, do not care about life. If they did, they’d be advocates for better care of pregnant women. A recent 40-year study found high-blood pressure has steadily risen among pregnant women. Most women in this country do not have adequate healthcare and that’s dangerous for them and the babies they decide to grow in their bodies.
If these men really were “pro-life," they would especially be concerned about the health of black women as they are twice as likely as white women to have high blood pressure when pregnant. They would convince me they were "pro-life" if they supported women’s clinics who only work to help women and provide them with contraception, which helps to reduce pregnancies, which overall reduces the number of abortions. But they would have to use their brains to connect all of those elements in the first place, which they will never do. And it’s too bad because they’re fighting a losing battle.
To make a donation to the Center for Reproductive Rights, click here.
To help North Dakota’s only abortion clinic, go here. And thank you.
