Abortion clinics

[porcupine]

It's going to be next to impossible to ban abortions again (too much political mileage in it), but we can, and should, be regulating that industry. A perfect example is above, requiring abortion providers to fully inform patients of

1> what risks are involved, including potential complications in the future (ie. possible sterilization, increased risk of cervical cancer, etc.)

2> ensuring the patient is kept informed of everything that is going on before, during, and after the procedure, including viewing all tests and radiologic exams before beginning the abortion.

3> states should set guidelines for reporting requirements, ie, the number of abortions performed, the ages of the patients, the method of payment (for tax purposes), and any donations to that clinic that comes from non patient payments.

4> Require abortions providers to show reasonable efforts have been made to inform the patient of ALL alternatives to abortion.

5> require abortion providers to show reasonable efforts have been made to have the patient follow up with a gynecologist and a counselor after the procedure.

6> since there is no federal law outlining abortion practices, states should require that all board members, executives, and providers live in the state in which the clinic is.

7> since there is documented evidence of depression and other mental processes after an abortion, clinics should have to provide a percentage of their profit to a counseling program for post abortion pateints.

8> set environmental and operating standards to ensure patients do not contract infections, and are monitored post procedure.

We can't stop abortions from happening (even if they're illegal), but we can at least get some common sense legislation out there to regulate it.

Think about your last quote here. You say that people would disobey the law if abortion was made illegal, then you propose to regulate it. Don't you think that the same kind of people who would disobey a law against abortion would also disobey the regulations?

Many of the proposed "incremental" legislative steps against abortion inherently deny the basic principle of pro-life -- that the baby is fully human from conception and deserving of the same protections as any other human. So one must be very careful about legislating "feel-good" solutions that solve nothing -- like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.

I'm glad William Wilberforce and the other abolitionists did not feel as you did. Slavery was far more entrenched in all the world's cultures than abortion is today. Yet, these people did not shrink from their duty to seek elimination. While there is some slavery today, it is carried on underground because, unlike before 1700, slavery is considered evil by every nation. This was due to the work of evangelical Christianity. I suggest we adopt their attitude rather than your defeatist attitude.