Thursday, February 12, 2009

Ultrasounds Before Abortions May be Mandated

Sixteen states currently have laws relating to ultrasounds before abortion, some requiring that women be given an ultrasound prior to abortion, and others requiring that she be told where she can get the procedure for free. Now, 12 more states are considering legislation that would require doctors to provide women with ultrasounds before terminating a pregnancy.

For example, in Connecticut, doctors would be required to make ultrasound images available to their patients. In Texas, doctors would be required to show ultrasounds to patients, display the results and explain the images. A bill in Florida would require women to pay $100 to $200 for their own ultrasounds before having an abortion.

A Focus on the Family study found that up to 87 percent of women who see their fetuses in an ultrasound choose to keep the baby. "In the course of [seeing the ultrasound image], this miraculous thing that happens is this woman comes face-to-face with her unborn child," said Kim Conroy, consultant to Sanctity of Human Life Issues for Focus on the Family. "Before, it was theoretical information, but now, it's 'This is not a blob of tissue; it's not some undefined mass.'" [WorldNetDaily.com, USAtoday.com]

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My wife and I are expecting our first child and had the opportunity last month to have our first ultrasound. Truly a powerful and moving experience. I honestly had the thought while watching it "How could anyone have an abortion after seeing this?" I was a proponent of ultrasound prior to that, but now I'm 100% sold that we need more of these and need to make them available to every pregnant woman. I'm excited for the next one! It's like a sneak peek into the future, and what a beautiful and glorious future!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on becoming parents! I think requiring ultrasounds before making a decision to abort is a great idea! Unfortunately, abortion has become the 'new' birth control. Maybe if more woman and girls could see their child before hand, they would choose life instead.