Why I am against overregulation of abortion

[LadyShea]

Since the other thread became an unwanted debate, I wanted to lay out my position here for discussion.

Many states are enacting petty or nuisance regulations as well as imposing unreasonable limitations with regard to abortions. Pro-choice forces have dubbed the nuisance regs TRAP laws or Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. TRAP laws vary from special licensing requirements to the 35 pages of staffing and structural regulations Mississippi requires for abortion clinics only (not applied to any other type of facility). Because these laws are not applied to dermatology clinics, or surgery centers or whathaveyou it is an obvious ploy to limit access to abortion by making it very difficult for providers to...provide.

Limitations include mandatory waiting periods, mandatory (though unnecessary) tests such as ultrasounds, counseling content requirements, barring of crossing state lines, and parental consent laws.

A Mississippian must travel to Jackson to have an abortion, and 2 of their 3 MDs fly in from New York so they are only open 4-days a week. There is a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, which is an unnecessary financial hardship for someone driving hundreds of miles. They must either get a hotel or make the however many mile trip twice. They must take at least two days off work, and possibly pay for additional childcare. Their support person/driver must also take two days off to take her there. This is an unnecessary hardship to receive a legal and self paid medical procedure, in my opinion.

[Dingfod]

Well, there is always the coat hanger in the back alley alternative.[/facetious]

Sorry about that. I just think that's what those people would have women resort to.

[godfry n. glad]

Let me get this straight....

It's legal to obtain an abortion in Mississippi, right?

So why are there only 3 physicians, in one location, and a greater portion of those shipped in from out of state? That's the only place in the entire state where this medical procedure can be obtained? Why?

How about Memphis or New Orleans?

Somehow there are only 3 part-time imported physicians to do all the legal abortions in the entire state? That's just hard to believe.

Anyone who prevents a citizen from obtaining legal medical care for themselves, through fraud or intimidation, is denying them their civil rights, aren't they? I'd be interested in how the legal/judicial community would respond to such a claim....I'm sure it already has, I'm just ignorant of it and know that there are those here who know law better than I.

godfry

de jure & de facto, eh? the new "jim crow"

[godfry n. glad]

Actually, I'd suspect there is a fair amount of unreported pregnancy terminations being done in doctor's offices across the country. Nobody admits to it any more, because it has become a potential death sentence.

Thanks to the terrorists in our very midst.

godfry

[LadyShea]

Let me get this straight....

It's legal to obtain an abortion in Mississippi, right?

Per Roe v. Wade abortion is legal in all 50 states.

So why are there only 3 physicians, in one location, and a greater portion of those shipped in from out of state? That's the only place in the entire state where this medical procedure can be obtained? Why?

Because Roe v. Wade does not prevent states from imposing any and all regulations regarding abortion and providers short of making it completely illegal. Mississippi requires special "abortionist" licensing, and super-picky regulations like specific hallway widths and parking lot sizes. There are, as I said, some 35 pages of structural and staffing requirements.

The Jackson Women's Health Organization is the sole provider of abortions in Mississippi http://www.gynpages.com/jwho/



How about Memphis or New Orleans?

I will need to look up the specific laws for Tennessee and Louisiana.

Edit: Looks like Tenessee has a few in each major city...Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville. I can only find two in Louisiana, one in Shreveport and one in Bossier City. It is possible that other people provide them, but do not advertise due to TRAP laws (special licenses must be aquired to advertise abortion services in some states) or are limited to under 5+- per month without special licensing.

Somehow there are only 3 part-time imported physicians to do all the legal abortions in the entire state? That's just hard to believe.

It's true, and as a result Mississippi has the lowest abortion rate in the nation. They also have the highest child poverty and infant mortality rate, which is directly correlary in my opinion.

Anyone who prevents a citizen from obtaining legal medical care for themselves, through fraud or intimidation, is denying them their civil rights, aren't they?

Yes.

I'd be interested in how the legal/judicial community would respond to such a claim....I'm sure it already has, I'm just ignorant of it and know that there are those here who know law better than I.

States have the right to impose laws as long as the Federal law is not violated. Some states have had their regulations struck down in Federal court, but that's why they use benign language and terms like "counseling" and "Right to Know".

[The Lone Ranger]

Just in case anyone thinks there's any substance to the "Abortion causes Breast Cancer" argument:

Lancet. 2004 Mar 27;363(9414):1007-16.
Pregnancies that end as a spontaneous or induced abortion do not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. Collectively, the studies of breast cancer with retrospective recording of induced abortion yielded misleading results, possibly because women who had developed breast cancer were, on average, more likely than other women to disclose previous induced abortions.

BMC Womens Health. 2005 Feb 4;5(1):1.
Additionally, two factors, parity [1-2 births (OR=0.68, 95%C.I: 0.47-0.98), >3 births (OR=0.55, 95%C.I: 0.38-0.80)] and a history of abortion or miscarriage (OR=0.75, 95%C.I: 0.57-0.99) were correlated with a decreased risk of breast cancer.
(My emphasis.)


Beral V, Bull D, Doll R, et al; Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Breast cancer and abortion: collaborative reanalysis of data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 83 000 women with breast cancer from 16 countries. Lancet 2004;363:1007–16.
Meta-analysis of 12 prospective studies that had data on both spontaneous and induced abortion showed that women who had >= 1 pregnancy ending in spontaneous or induced abortion did not have an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Relative risks did not differ according to number or timing of spontaneous or induced abortions.

Evidence Based Nursing. 2004 Oct;7(4):122.
Clinically, this study suggests that women who experience spontaneous abortion and women who are considering induced abortion can be reassured that no sound medical evidence exists that they will be at increased risk of developing breast cancer. With the publication of this methodologically sound and comprehensive reanalysis, it is hoped that resources available for breast cancer research can be redirected towards more fruitful lines of research into preventable causes.

British Journal of Cancer. 2002 Oct 21;87(9):977-81.
The possible influence of induced abortion on breast cancer risk was assessed in a cohort of 267,040 women enrolled in a randomised trial of breast self-examination in Shanghai, China. Based on answers to a baseline questionnaire, subsequent breast cancer risk was not significantly associated with ever having an induced abortion.

Annals of Internal Medicine. 2004 Apr 20;140(8):620-6.
Of importance, no link exists between induced abortion and later breast cancer.

International Journal of Cancer. 2004 Jun 20;110(3):443-8.
Studies suggesting a positive association between pregnancy termination and breast cancer risk have often been of retrospective case-control design, so subject to selection and recall biases. We undertook a registry-based analysis with minimal selection bias and prospective record-based ascertainment of terminations. The source population comprised Massachusetts women with a record of giving birth between 1987 and 1999 in the Massachusetts Vital Statistics Registry. Primary breast cancer cases were 25-55 years old at diagnosis between 1988 and 2000 and had a record of the diagnosis in the Massachusetts Cancer Registry. We matched 3 controls to each case on maternal age, year of giving birth and birth facility. Information on terminations (induced and spontaneous) before the birth of record, the matched factors and potential confounders were collected from the birth certificate. After adjustment for the matched factors, age, parity and maternal and paternal education, the odds ratio associating any termination history with breast cancer risk equaled 0.91 (95% CI = 0.79-1.05). The marginally protective adjusted odds ratio largely derived from a protective effect among women with parity equaled to 1 (OR for any termination = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.45-1.03), suggesting a protective effect of terminated pregnancy among women with one live birth.
(My emphasis.) In other words, if anything, the study suggests that women who have had an abortion are less likely to develop breast cancer.


Cancer Causes Control. A prospective study of induced abortion and breast cancer in African-American women. 2004 Mar;15(2):105-11.
Our findings indicate that induced abortion does not increase breast cancer risk in African-American women.

Breast. 2001 Aug;10(4):291-8.
We found no significant association between spontaneous abortion or induced abortion and breast cancer risk.



Cheers,

Michael

[lpetrich]

This makes me wonder: whatever happened to all those right-wingers who wail about the evils of government regulation? Could they have found a form of government regulation that they love?