Louisiana Senate Advances Abortion-Ultrasound Bill, Makes Viewing Optional
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 28, 2010
Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) — The Louisiana state Senate advanced a bill today similar to those moving ahead in other states like Oklahoma and Florida. The measure would give women something abortion centers don’t normally provide: a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before the abortion.
When used in pregnancy centers, women considering an abortion who see the ultrasound change their mind about the abortion about 80 percent of the time.
The Senate Health & Welfare Committee sent Senate Bill 528 to the full state Senate for a debate and vote.
However, according to the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper, the panel first removed a section that would have required a "screen depicting the active ultrasound images" placed within view. Instead, the bill now gives women a chance to see the ultrasound but a right to refuse to do so.
Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, a Democrat, is the sponsor of the bill that would make the state the fifteenth to allow women the information before considering an abortion.
Dorinda Bordlee, a Metairie and attorney for the Bioethics Defense Funds, wrote the legislation and said its passage in the committee was a "pro-life victory."
Julie Mickelberry, public affairs director of Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta, opposed the bill to help women get more information.
Despite opposition from the abortion business, the committee passed it on a 6-2 margin.
Louisiana Right to Life previously told LifeNews.com it was excited about the bill.
"Over the past six months, we have been working with experts to craft this groundbreaking legislation empowering women to know the truth about abortion," the group said. "Not only will it require abortion facilities to perform ultrasounds before every abortion and show them to the woman (they can choose to look or not), but every woman will receive an ultrasound print out of their unborn child before their abortion. No other state has done this."
"As studies have shown, women are 2-3 times more likely to choose to parent or pursue adoption after seeing an ultrasound. Not only do we hope women will be fully informed about abortion, but in knowing the truth, they will have the freedom to make a better choice," it said.
As LifeNews.com reported, the Florida state Senate also advanced an abortion-ultrasound measure today.
And Oklahoma passed its bill, although a pro-abortion law firm filed suit against it for an abortion business and abortion practitioner.
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