Three Abortion Bills Face Committee Reviews in Maine

[Maine-ah]

Source: MPBN

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ Three bills that would add new restrictions on abortion in Maine face legislative committee reviews.

The Judiciary Committee tomorrow takes up the three bills, LDs 116, 924 and 1457. One of the bills would require a 24-hour waiting period prior to an abortion, except in the case of a medical emergency.

An "informed consent'' bill would require that information about the risks of abortion be made available by a doctor to a woman seeking an abortion at least 24 hours before the procedure.

Also, state health officials would have to develop a brochure describing the risks and alternatives to abortion.


Read more: http://www.mpbn.net/News/MPBNNewsforVillageSoup/tabid/1144/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3695/ItemId/16207/Default.aspx

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The third part of the bill is about repealing the adult consent for minors....oh..it's not what you think though. They're trying to make it so that a parent or legal guardian would have to not only sign a consent, but have it notarized too.


Someone, please tell me where the fuck I live again?! Because I'm starting to think I live in some crazy right wing state.

[greiner3]

1. The attacks on abortion in the country are insane;

However, any invasive medical procedure I have ever undergone has included a form I needed to initial several times and sign. The wording on this form included all known risks and that the patient, by signing, gives up many rights to sue if there are complications.

I can't believe that this procedure and these forms are not already in use. It will be the lack of forms in the future that I worry about when more and more women are forced to undergo these procedures when most abortions are illegal.

Just saying.

[davidthegnome]

2. Well, when Le Prick became Governor...

I determined then that I was living in a crazy right wing state. At least a state governed by crazy right wing policies. Two Republican Senators, a Republican Governor, etc.

We'll just have to push back against this BS as hard as we can (the third part of the bill is absurd) and work harder to elect democrats next time around. Or at least to elect people who aren't complete moronic asshats.

Looks like it's time to write letters and make phone calls... frigging assholes running our State. I used to think Baldacci was bad... ugh.

[cstanleytech]

3. I dont have a problem with

a 24 hour wait period (we require longer periods for guns and thats not anywhere near as major a decision to make as is an abortion would be) unless its an emergency isnt imo much of a problem though like you I do have a problem with the third bill regarding consent for minors, redoing it so that a 3rd party advocate for the minor is appointed who can assist the minor and advocate for them might work though of course it also needs to include language so the need for consent can be waived if there is an emergency where the minors life is at risk.

[Lars39]

4. 24 hour waiting period is putting undue hardship on some women.

Not everyone can afford the extra day off work or the motel bill if they had to travel quite a distance to get to the nearest facility.
Does any other medical procedure compel you wait 24 hours to have it done?

[cstanleytech]

11. I am sorry but I have to disagree

and yes I am pro choice in that in the end its a womens choice but the 24 hour waiting period doesnt take that away, now if it included a bogus provision to have to watch an ultrasound ok but otherwise its no where near as harsh a waiting time as it is to purchase a firearm.

[KamaAina]

5. The waiting period for guns is there for a reason

to allow the authorities to do a background check in order to confirm that the purchaser is permitted to own a gun.

What rationale does a waiting period for abortion serve, other than to place a roadblock in front of women exercising their right to choose?

[musette_sf]

7. exactly

and the waiting period for abortion is to allow/require the authorities to say to the patient desiring legal medical services and care:

"Now listen here, young lady! You are going to sit there and you are going to THINK about it! I'll let you know when I decide that I've let you think about it for long enough! You'll have LOTS of time to take a really LONG think, so you'd better make yourself comfortable!"

[cstanleytech]

12. Its a minor roadblock

for a major lifes decision that will have an impact on them for the rest of their life, a 24 hour period all their options does not remove their right in the end to terminate the pregnancy in the end if the women so wishes so their rights do remain intact.

[KamaAina]

17. But why put it there at all?

There's no requirement for a background check as there is with guns.

I think musette nailed it, right above your post.

[iverglas]

6. who cares?

What does it have to do with you?

Okay if someone else doesn't have a problem with an interference with some right of yours -- an interference that in some cases can actually result in denying the exercise of that right? In the case of abortion, many women in the US (also in Canada) have to travel out of town for the service. The 24-hour rule means an extra night in a motel, an extra day off work ... and for some women, those costs are simply prohibitive.

But as long as you're okay with it, I guess we should all be.

With respect to minors: the people who provide abortion services are physicians. It's their job -- their profession, actually -- to consider their patients' best interests and be satisfied that the patient is an appropriate candidate for the procedure. Inserting third parties into the process, be they parents or persons acting in loco parentis or as advocates, is just one more element of intimidation for a young person already braving enough obstacles.

Can we really not forget that the alternative to a young person not terminating her pregnancy is continuing the pregnancy, delivering and (assuming all goes according to plan) having a child? It really isn't a situation in which some outsider is going to come up with a really good solution to the problem that doesn't involve terminating the pregnancy. Pregnancy and childbirth can be medically higher risk for a girl, and early abortion is statistically safer. Pregnancy and childbirth are likely considerably higher risk socially and economically for a girl who doesn't want her parents to know her situation. Those non-medical risks can be avoided by termination; there just aren't a lot of ways to avoid the social and economic consequences of continuing the pregnancy.

I'm sure you'll find my comments belligerent. I get that way when someone decides they're cool with a bunch of strangers' rights being infringed.

[cstanleytech]

13. Except you and a few others seem to be confused

because the 24 hour period doesnt in the end remove their right to terminate the pregnancy so you might want to save your belligerent attitude and comments for laws that truly do that.

[iverglas]

14. no, thank you

You're the one happily waving and waiving away other people's rights, and you've responded to none of the objections to your complacency in that regard, so I guess you do deserve my attitude.

A right that cannot be exercised for want of resources is a pretty hollow right.

In a liberal democracy, society has no duty to compensate for an individual's lack of resources.

But it has no fucking business imposing financial burdens on people who simply want to do something that it is their right to do and is not remotely anybody else's business.

The waiting period would be a rights violation even if no additional costs were involved, even if the woman in question were a millionnaire with her own house doctor.

Women have the right to decide the outcome of their pregnancies, without hindrance or interference of ANY kind.

If you don't agree with that, and if you do agree with burdening the exercise of that right with irrelevant, unjustified conditions, then you aren't pro-choice and you are no friend of women.

[cstanleytech]

16. Ah so if I dont agree with you I am of course not pro choice, truly a gift of logic you have.

Stunning, truly stunning.

[iverglas]

18. ah, so if you use the tired right-wing tactic

of pretending your interlocutor said something they didn't say, and something quite stupid and evil at that, you are of course a paragon of progressive thinking.

Feminist, too, of course.

All feminist thinkers believe that women need to sit in a corner and contemplate the error of their ways before being permitted to exercise their right to make their own decisions about their own lives.

Gotcha.

Now I'm going to go glue myself to the television and cross all my digits and will my country into a social democrat government. If the Conservatives win again, we would be at risk of finding ourselves with nasty right-wing anti-woman policies like you're approving.

[cstanleytech]

19. Actually you are the one using a right wing tactic, a Glenn Beck one to be precise

(before he finally got canceled) where you tell people what "they must do", its a tad amusing.


Edit: forgot to add all you need now is a bulletin board with pictures.

[iverglas]

20. still waiting

for you to offer ANY JUSTIFICATION for your advocacy of violating women's rights.

What is it? What is it that makes you say you see no problem with forcing women to wait 24 hours for no reason whatsoever, when all you have to say is that is wrong.

I guess you did give us a hint, that dribble about making momentous decisions.

So please do be sure to come on back here and let us know next time you have a major life decision to make, so we can impose some arbitrary conditions on you.

I don't really know who Glen Beck is beyond the name, so whatever the crack about bulletin boards was supposed to convey, it didn't.

[cstanleytech]

21. I already gave you my opinion, you dont have to accept it if you dont want to

[Scout]

8. so fucking SICK AND TIRED of the "alternatives to abortion" bullshit

there is only ONE alternative, singular, not plural, to having an abortion.

there is ONE alternative ... birth the damn thing.


:grr:

[iverglas]

9. boo

Ain't it cute how we all bashed out the same things on our keyboards?

I know I just started typing without reading myself this time. ;)

[high density]

10. Any anti-abortion bill needs to include a tax on the bill's supporters to take care of the kids

They need to extend their care for life from beyond the clumps of cells state.

[cstanleytech]

15. I agree and

I have always found it odd how those who truly oppose abortion are not willing to put their money where there mouth is and craft something that provides atleast basic healthcare for the mother and child.