Politicians At The Bedside

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Attached a troubling news item reporting how politicians are interfering in the physician-patient relationship. I know that within our organization and our society at large , women’s right to choose their reproductive life is being hotly debated.
Unfortunately, the US Supreme Court not only decided to uphold the “Partial Birth Abortion” ban, but also adopted the terminology of the Pro-Life movement calling doctors providing such services “abortion doctors” and described the procedure known as intact dilation and evacuation or dilation and extraction as "partial-birth abortion".
In a further blow to the physician-patient relationship the Florida House voted last week
to impose a 24-hour wait period and a sonogram before almost all abortions.
This decision not only encroaches on women’s reproductive rights, but also inserts the politician into the physician-patient relationship.
Most women I have provided pregnancy termination advice and counsel come to my office after days or deliberation and do not need rules and regulation imposed by paternalistic politicians.
As a physician and my patients advocate I protest such government intrusion into the practice of medicine and call upon organized medicine to speak up in defense of women’s reproductive rights.

Yours truly,

Bernd

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Posted on Sat, Apr. 28, 2007
Abortion bill heads to Senate
BY BREANNE GILPATRICK
A controversial proposal requiring a 24-hour wait period and a sonogram before almost all abortions passed the state House of Representatives on Friday and is on its way to the Florida Senate.
The House voted 71-42 in favor of the provisions, after roughly two hours of contentious debate. Both proposals were added to a bill by Rep. Trey Traviesa, a Tampa Republican, that would require judges to appoint a guardian for underage girls who want an abortion and seek to get around the state's parental-notification law.
''On every other medical procedure there is time, time for those important two words: informed consent,'' Traviesa said. ``And anyone who seeks to deny a woman the ability to achieve informed consent is not advocating for the rights of women. They're advocating for an idea.''
Women who are victims of rape, incest, domestic violence or human trafficking would be exempt from the sonogram requirement.

SUPREME COURT BAN
The House vote comes nine days after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal government ban on a particular kind of late-term abortion, a decision pro-choice activists have said would encourage some states to attempt to chip away at abortion rights.
Legislatures in Georgia and South Carolina are considering similar ultrasound requirements. One South Carolina proposal also would require women to view the scans.
The proposal faces rough going in the Senate, where the version by Sen. Ronda Storms, a Valrico Republican, addresses only the parental-notification changes. And senators from both parties have said they are opposed to expanding Storms' bill to encompass the new House provisions.
Gov. Charlie Crist said he is unsure what he thinks about the 24-hour wait period.
''That might concern me,'' Crist said Friday. ``I better look at it, though.''
Supporters say the ultrasound and 24-hour waiting period help women make better medical decisions. The state already requires sonograms before abortions in the second and third trimesters. The proposal would add that requirement for the first three months of pregnancy, when most abortions take place.
The bill also gives women the option not to view the scan.
''If you read this bill, it doesn't do anything to take a way a woman's right to choose,'' said Rep. Kevin Ambler, a Lutz Republican. ``What it does is put a thoughtful deliberative process in place.''
`WHAT AN OUTRAGE'
But opponents say anti-abortion advocates have hijacked the parental notification bill to add provisions designed to create more abortion hurdles that trivialize a woman's decision to have an abortion.
''This bill demeans me in a way I have never felt demeaned before,'' said Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Boca Raton Democrat. ``It suggests that I would be so cavalier about the decision to terminate a pregnancy that I should go back home and think it over as if I was out shopping and passed by a clinic and decided to pop in for an abortion. What an outrage.''
Miami Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this report.