I am the co-author in the state Senate of legislation to prevent coercive abortions and to prevent post-abortion trauma. Assembly Bill 427, the Coercive Abortion Bill, was discussed at a recent hearing by the state Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Ethics that I testified before.
Assembly Bill 427 is a prevention bill. The goal of this legislation is to prevent women from suffering post-abortion trauma.
Abortion trauma is real and is as common as other forms of post-traumatic stress disorder. As women that have had abortions age and realize the impact of the action, many suffer. Assembly Bill 427 prevents trauma, a real phenomenon documented by studies and surveys.
Under the bill, the physician must determine whether the woman’s consent to an abortion is voluntary. If the physician has reason to believe that the woman is in danger of being physically harmed or that someone is coercing the woman to consent to an abortion against her will, the physician must inform the woman about services for victims or individuals at risk of domestic abuse. If a women states that she wishes to call for assistance, the physician must provide her with private access to a telephone.
A physician counseling a woman considering an abortion shall, in person, inform the woman that it is against the law for any person to use threats, intimidation, force or coercion to compel her to have an abortion against her will.
The woman is also to be informed that she has a right to refuse to consent to an abortion and that a person may not threaten, intimidate, force or coerce her to consent to the procedure against her will.
The Elliot Institute, a non-profit corporation performs original research and education on the impact of abortion on women, reports that the post-abortion effect on women is devastating: They are more likely to commit suicide, suffer long-term clinical depression, become hospitalized, abuse drugs and alcohol and develop nervous and sleep disorders.
The Elliot Institute refers to abortion as the un-choice:
• 64% involve coercion.
• Pressure can become violent.
• 67% not counseled.
• 65% suffer trauma.
The Institute says, “Intense pressure to abort can come from husbands, parents, doctors, partners, counselors, or close friends and family. They may threaten or blackmail a woman into abortion. These are not idle threats. Coercion can escalate to violence. Women who resist abortion have been beaten, tortured and killed. One husband jumped on his wife’s stomach to force an abortion. A mother forced her daughter at gunpoint to go to the abortion clinic.”
Reasons women give for having abortion include: being forced by a mother, the father was opposed to the birth, no other option was given, the family stopped giving support, and I would have been kicked out of the house.
A woman, upon learning she is pregnant, can suffer overwhelming emotions brought on by doubts and fears. Facing unkind reactions, she feels she has let everyone down, that she made a huge mistake she's entirely responsible for and that in order to eliminate the problem she needs to give in to coercion.
Women enduring coercion are mentally and physically worn down. They arrive at clinics feeling powerless. Believing they do not have options, they sign all the obligatory paperwork.
There have been accounts of women being dragged into clinics by the neck and hair. Others have been seen mouthing the words "help me" through car windows as they were driven to clinic parking lots.
The Elliot Institute has produced a radio spot being broadcast around the country about abortions that are unwanted, coerced or even violently forced.
The Institute says:
“Your compassionate neighbors don't know that most abortions involve coercion of one sort or another. This injustice is often followed by grief that can escalate to suicide because it is dismissed or harshly judged by friends and family ... ignored by church leaders and experts ... or simply politically incorrect.
Chances are, few people in your city are aware of just how many abortions are unwanted or deceptively and inaccurately presented by credentialed professionals, leaders ... even pastors ... But they will know ... if you -- or your church or civic group -- will simply download the ad below and forward it to a local radio station.
Ask them to run it during "drive-time" ... or during your favorite talk radio show ... or during a popular women's program. (Radio is one of the best mediums to reach women.)
Many stations will run it free of charge in off-peak hours as a Public Service Announcement.
Imagine hearing this as you are driving down the road in your own community.”
I want to prevent the emotional and physical trauma women experience. Assembly Bill 427 prevents coercive abortions and post-abortion trauma.
