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The Clackamas Print
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March 5, 2003
Are proposed abortion bills necessary?
★ THE CLACKAMAS PRINT*
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ext. 2578
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Three of the four bills will inhibit
a woman's right to choose
Proposals will educate women
about the impact of abortion
A woman’s right to choose is
absolutely vital; it’s a woman’s
body, a woman’s mind and a
woman’s responsibility.
Women have been having abortions
for decades. Were they always legal?
Of course not, but women were still
having them and women were dying.
Are we going to reverse our social
thinking back 50 years? That would
be absurd.
Currently, four bills are going
through the legislature to regulate abortions. The first requires that abortion
providers educate patients 24 hours before the procedure. This could leave
too much room for providers to thrust their opinions upon patients. Just
because a provider is performing an abortion, doesn’t always mean they agree
with them. A woman should know the risks before the procedure, but the
woman should ask, not be told.
The second bill requires parental consent if the patient is under 17.
Should a parent decide if their child should bear another child? America
has experienced back-yard abortions before; parental consent will only
force teenage women to experience the same horrible conditions that
existed in the ‘50s
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The third bill requires clinics or doctor’s offices that perform abortions to
meet state operations standards for surgical centers. I don’t oppose this bill.
While it may put strain on clinics economically, I do believe it can only bet
ter the patient’s care. .
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The last bill is completely out of control. It requires a woman seeking
abortion of a fetus 20 weeks or older to be told that the fetus can feel pain
and asked if she wants anesthesia for the fetus. There is absolutely no
proof that a fetus can feel pain. When a woman walks into a clinic or
doctor’s office to have an abortion, she has made up her mind to have the
abortion. She has her reasons, and they are her own. Repeating some
thing that has absolutely no hard evidence like that will only further the
emotional trauma that could be caused. Why put someone who is proven
to be able to ¡feel pain thyrougK jfaat? .
; r,
,
Almost, two thirds of the women I know, have been sexually assaulted.
What if a pregnancy came from one of those assaults? Who is to say that
the emotional trauma caused by an abortion is going to exceed the emo
tional trauma of giving birth to a child whose conception was never even
considered as a choice? Legislators would be condemning the poor
woman to a.life-long reminder of that horrible event in her life.
There are many life-threatening conditions.as well. When I was 19,1
became pregnant. The father was my fiancé. 1 became so ill that I could
n’t even move for two months without throwing up. I lost 35 pounds in
two weeks and became so weak that I couldn’t pick myself up out of the
bathtub. My doctors scrambled to figure out why I was so sick, but came
up with nothing.
I couldn’t take it any longer. I became so weak and dehydrated that I
had a miscarriage. Four months later, I became pregnant again. I tried
everything to stay healthy. Nothing worked, and once again I was in and
out of the hospital for weeks. One day a nurse mentioned to me that my
body might not be able to handle a pregnancy. I felt she was right. I
chose to have an abortion. I think about it every day of my life. Do I
regret my decision? No. I feel that I was informed, and I had the love and
support from everyone close to me..
When a woman starts having sex, she automatically forms an opinion
about abortions, even if her opinion changes when faced with the decision.
Women who complain about not being informed when they had their abor
tion are ridiculous. Whose responsibility is it to inform them? If one is
adult enough to have sex, she should take it upon herself to do a little
research and get her facts straight. Abortions create more emotional pain
than physical—there is no way around it-but a woman should be allowed
to make a decision that is going to affect her for the rest of her life.
A woman’s uterus is her own. A woman’s mind is her own. A woman’s
body is her own. The world cannot legislate the crucial elements that make a
woman a woman. The government needs to choose their battles; this should
not be one of them.
A woman’s “right” to choose is once
again being threatened in Oregon, and
abortion advocates around the area are
throwing a fit.
Several new bills are being presented
that would, among other things,
require medical professionals to
inform mothers of the medical risks
involved in having an abortion, man
date a 24-hour waiting period before
an abortion can be performed and
inform the mother that her baby may
feel pain during the procedure. While these won’t outlaw abortion altogether,
they will help educate women about the impact their choices have on their
future, as well as that of their unbom child.
As a huge pro-life supporter, I think these are great ideas. I find it
ludicrous that mothers can legally have their pregnancies terminated,
thereby killing the unborn child. The second the baby comes into the
world, the very same action is classified as murder. I see no difference
between the two. Why protect one arid not the other? Why can people see
how precious babies are when they are out of the womb but not while in
it? Shouldn’t we be protecting them even more during this amazing time
of development? To me this makes no sense.
All of that aside, I’m going to address some of the more heated issues that
these bills bring up.
House Bill 2550 will make it mandatory for doctors to inform mothers that
there is a possibility their babies will feel pain during the abortion, and offer
to administer anesthesia to the child. That way, women know ahead of time
how their actions may affect their child. It could also help them realize that
rather than just tissue, it is actually a living human being inside them.
Pro-ahortionists say that this gives unproven information as fact and is
solely to discourage abortions.
However, according to www.ortl.org, medical journals have proven that a
baby’s development has been shown to begin shortly after conception and
continue until the time of birth. At 24 days, the heart beats regularly. At 30
days, blood begins to flow in the vascular system. At 43 days, “electrical
brain wave patterns can be recorded. This is usually ample, evidence that
‘thinking’ is taking place in the brain. The new life may be thought of as a
thinking person.” So at just 43 days old, the child has brain wave patterns and
can think. So if it can think, shouldn’t it be able to feel pain as well? Why
wouldn’t it be a good idea to let women know how much their baby really can
feel before they abort it?
That is why this bill is so important. It’s more than a question of rights; it
gives information that affects life and death.
House Bill 2547, the “informed consent bill,” will require health care
providers to let women know of links befweerihaving an abortion and other
health conditions, and add a 24-hour waiting period between the time of con
sultation and the abortion. What’s wrong with that? Wouldn’t you want to
know how dangerous a procedure is before you have it done? There are far
too many women who decided to have an abortion and found out about all of
the consequences afterward—like guilt, depression and thoughts of suicide,
among other medical concerns.
The suggested waiting period in this bill also would prevent women
from making rash decisions. If you had a huge decision to make—and this
is definitely a big one—wouldn’t you want to know all of the facts and
risks, and have a little time to digest the information? Sometimes people do
things in the heat of the moment that they later regret, especially when they
are emotionally distraught, and with the required waiting period, women
searching for a solution will be able make a more informed decision that
they won’t regret later.
Even with all of these proposed regulations, the only truly right thing to do
is outlaw abortion altogether. I don’t think anybody should be able to kill their
unbom child simply because they don’t want it. However, since I seem to be
a minority on this subject, the least we can do is help women by providing
them with all of the information on what they are about to do. Those of you
who think these new bills may put a cap on women’s choices, remember that
even without abortion, there will always be a choice: either put the baby up
for adoption or keep it. Don’t kill it.
believe in peace, just through differ-;
ent ways then some. But just
because people don’t believe we
should go to war, doesn’t mean that
the men and women that do go need
to be disowned by their nation. I
More support needed for America’s
always thought it took a lot to be in
Armed Forces
j,,' 1?:J the military, but now, when I can.
take the Trimet bus from CCC to the
Dear Editor,
' .
I just wanted to say thank you for Clackamas Town Center, get accost
the awesome article in the Feb. 19 ed by some civilian who doesn’t
edition, entitled “Stop denouncing know much besides what the news
our nation’s protectors.” It’s nice to says, and proceed to gel chewed out
see that there is actually support out for a good 15 minutes while trying
there for people in the United States to keep a civil tongue of my
Armed Forces, the Marine Corps own...Now that I see that, I realize
especially. So many people today how much more it takes.
The people of the United States
don’t believe we should go to war
and so many believe in peace. Hell, today see only Marines as they
most of the Marines that 1 know appear in movies such as Full Metal
Letters to
the Editor
Jacket. They see pilots through
movies like Top Gun, in which one
RIO (the backseater) “knows” the
enemy is close because he is “get
ting a hard-on.” h’s through the eyes
of Hollywood that America today
sees die men and women that go to
war for its safety. It’s disgusting.
Sure, Marines tend to idolize
FMJ, and yeah, we are a bit psycho,
but that’s a surface thing. It’s mostly
for show, because the populace of
America expects such things.
Underneath that, however, 95
percent of the Marines I know would
much rather be at home with their
girlfriend/wife/kids than over in a
foreign country, fighting for the safe
ty of people who despise them.
Even with the support of America,
they’d rather be borne because they
believe in peace, too, just like the
majority of the United States. We just
believe in going about it in a different
way, going to what we see as the
source of the problem, directly.
But the support of loved ones,
and of our entire nation is a huge
boost. It helps us to get through that
tour. But we know that, with the
support of our nation, we’ll come
home welcomed, with a place to be,
and for people who have only seen
sand for a year, that’s an awesome
thing to look forward too.
Sincerely,
FPU Paul Sanford
Clackamas student
United States Marine Corps