ACLU of Kentucky

Reproductive Freedom Project

Playing Politics With Women's Bodies

Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 9:05 am

This letter to the Editor appeared in the March 15th edition of the Courier-Journal.

After reading Representative Floyd’s defense of the amendments put forth by him, Representatives Moore and Fischer it is necessary to clarify and correct many of the points he made.

Representative Floyd is playing politics with women’s health. Don’t be fooled by his legislative wheeling and dealing. What’s really important here is that Representative Floyd is trying to push through legislation that will interfere in women’s personal private medical decisions. And if we get lost in the legislative smoke and mirrors, he might just succeed. Here’s the real impact of these amendments:

The first provision would force a woman to come to one of Kentucky’s two abortion clinics twice. The first visit is for counseling that a woman already receives over the phone and the second is for the procedure itself. Forcing a woman to come to the clinic for a face-to-face meeting rather than allowing her to have the conversation in the privacy of her home will restrict many women’s ability to access a legal medical procedure. Right now any woman that wants to have that conversation at the clinic can choose to do so. The simple fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of women decide to speak over the telephone.

The second provision would allow the government to dictate the nature of a person’s medical care and force a woman to listen to the results of her ultrasound regardless of her wishes. Currently, any woman that obtains an abortion in Kentucky receives an ultrasound and the staff offers the woman an opportunity to view and ask any questions she might have about the ultrasound. Some women choose to view the ultrasound, but the majority of women ask if they have to go over the ultrasound. The wishes of a woman should be our top priority, not those of a politician.

A woman needs to have all of the information involved with an abortion, but the information should not be provided with the intent of coercing, shaming, or making her change her mind.

The real world implications of this legislation will restrict the ability of many low-income and rural women to access an abortion. Visiting a clinic twice may not be difficult for Representative Floyd, but for a woman on a fixed-budget where every dollar and penny has to be accounted for losing a day’s wages is devastating.

Unlike Representatives Floyd, Moore and Fischer, I trust that a woman can make the decision of whether she wants to review an ultrasound or physically visit the clinic for her state mandated counseling session. Those decisions should be left in the hands of a woman and not the government.

I think we can all agree that we should be doing more to support a woman through the decision to have an abortion instead of throwing up additional roadblocks.

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