Do you trust your doctor? What if you knew that your legislators had just made it legal for your doctor to lie to you?
Three anti-reproductive rights bills that simply cross the line into the realm of ridiculous are being given a hearing this Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear arguments for and against the Family Planning Ban, or "gag rule" (SB 72), the Teen Endangerment Bill (SB 97), and the Right to Lie Bill (SB 71). These irresponsible bills endanger the lives of women and young girls and force the state Legislature's supposed moral high ground on the citizens of Wisconsin.
The Family Planning Ban will eliminate state funding for at a minimum 53 family planning facilities and up to 127 facilities. It's a "gag rule," which means that any clinic that councils women on abortion will lose all its funding. These clinics serve many underprivileged women and offer them help in their time of need and uncertainty. This "gag rule" will also do away with other services clinics offer such as access to birth control, cancer screening, and STI testing since they cannot function without the public funding they receive. Whether or not conservatives like abortion, it is legal. Counseling women on all of their viable options, of which abortion is one, is the purpose of family planning and must be protected.
The Teen Endangerment Bill does nothing to prevent teen pregnancy and effectively cuts off the pregnant teen from services that should be available to protect her and her health. Under this law, teens that have been raped, abused or have been victims of incest will find it difficult and in some cases impossible to access abortion services. What kind of message do we send the children in our community when we require parent's consent, a notarized consent form, and a government issued ID for consent to an abortion? The message to an abused and raped young girl seems clear: you can't get help here. This, in a way similar to the voter ID bill, cuts off many poor and vulnerable citizens from receiving the help they need.
The most abhorrent of the three bills, however, is the Right to Lie Bill. This law makes it legal for doctors to withhold critical medical information if they feel that information will lead their patient to have an abortion. Doctors have taken a Hippocratic Oath to protect and heal their patients. This bill does nothing to protect patients, but allows doctors to coerce patients to follow their own values. Being a doctor does not allow for a soapbox to persuade others to do what you would do. Withholding crucial medical information from women and their families in order for them not to choose to have an abortion is plainly negligent. This bill takes away all legal remedies women have to make doctors accountable for the information they give out, or fail to give out as the case may be.
Yes, doctors have their own belief systems that they feel compelled to follow. However, it is unacceptable that they refuse to follow through with their medical obligations and claim a moral commitment to do so. Patients must be able to trust their doctors, and knowing that the person who should be keeping them informed about their health can lie to them is not a way to build that trust. This essentially gives doctors the right to put their patients' lives in danger so they don't opt for an abortion.
By legalizing the practice of denying women certain prenatal care and tests, this law basically legalizes medical malpractice. According to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, not one health organization in the state supported this bill last session. This legislation is completely political in its motivation. Social conservatives in the Legislature need to stop playing politics with the health and lives of women. Family planning and prenatal health care are too important to be played around with in political games.
Julie Isen ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.