LIFE DIGEST: Kansas tightens abortion clinic standards
- May 17, 2011 -
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law May 16 legislation toughening restrictions on abortion providers.
The measure, the third pro-life bill endorsed by the Republican governor this session, includes the following:
Also in this edition: Complications greater for women using RU 486, Portuguese teenager dies after taking abortion drug, Swiss voters reject assisted suicide ban, and Sex-selection abortions may have eliminated 3,000 girls in Taiwan.
- A woman using the two-step drug RU 486 for an abortion must take it in the physical presence of a doctor, thereby preventing a “telemed” abortion, which is performed by means of videoconferencing.
- An abortion after the 21st week of pregnancy must occur at a licensed hospital or outpatient surgery center.
- Each abortion clinic must be licensed and undergo two annual inspections, one without prior notification.
- Each abortion doctor must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the site where he performs the procedure.
- Each woman requesting an abortion will have the opportunity to review an ultrasound image of her unborn child.
“In order to make money doing abortions, they have to do a lot of them. Medical regulations slow them down,” said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, according to the Associated Press. “Anything we could do to require the clinics to care more about women than about their profit margins is a good thing.”
In a pro-life victory in the neighboring state of Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law May 12 legislation prohibiting the use of RU 486 except under the guidelines by which it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Some abortion providers have instructed women to use the drug in an “off-label” manner. At least eight women have died in the United States after taking the abortion drug, and critics have blamed its “off-label” use in some of those cases.
“For too long, abortion providers have been dispensing abortion-inducing drugs in an unsafe manner that serves only to boost their profit margins,” said Daniel McConchie, Americans United for Life’s vice president of government affairs. “With this legislation, this practice will stop and women in Oklahoma will be better protected from such predatory practices in the state.”
In other state actions, according to reports from news media and pro-life organizations:
- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, vetoed May 12 legislation requiring a girl under the age of 18 to notify her parents before having an abortion.
- The Minnesota Senate passed May 16 a ban on abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation based on scientific evidence a baby in the womb experiences pain by that point and a prohibition on state funding of elective abortions. The House of Representatives already has approved both bills.
- The Missouri Legislature has forwarded to Gov. Jay Nixon with veto-proof majorities in both houses a bill that would bar abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless the unborn child is not considered viable.
- The Pennsylvania House approved in a 148-43 roll call May 11 a bill that would institute stronger restrictions on abortion clinics.
Complications greater for women using RU 486
Women whose abortions are performed with the drug RU 486 are more likely to have complications that result in treatment at hospital emergency rooms than those undergoing surgical abortions, a new Australian study found.
Research on almost 7,000 abortions performed in 2009 and 2010 in South Australia showed 3.3 percent of women using RU 486 in the first trimester later went to emergency rooms as opposed to 2.2 percent who had surgical abortions, The Australian reported May 7.
In the case of second-trimester abortions by RU 486, complications took place in as much as 33 percent of the cases examined, according to the report.
RU 486, also known as mifepristone, is used as the first part in a two-step process – supposedly in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone causes the lining of the uterus to release the embryonic child, resulting in his death. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken two days after mifepristone and causes the uterus to contract, expelling the baby.
Portuguese teenager dies after taking abortion drug
A 16-year-old Portuguese girl has died of an infection caused by use of the abortion drug RU 486, LifeNews.com reported May 16.
There now have been 32 confirmed deaths in the world of women after taking RU 486, according to the Italian Ministry of Health. At least eight have occurred in the United States, which approved the drug for sale in 2000.
The Portuguese girl’s death, which resulted from septic shock, was reported in a study abstract submitted at an infectious disease conference May 7-10 in Milan, Italy, according to LifeNews.
Swiss voters reject assisted suicide ban
Citizens of the Swiss canton of Zurich soundly defeated May 15 an initiative to prohibit assisted suicide. They also rejected a measure to ban foreigners from undergoing the lethal procedure in their state.
The votes were 85 percent in opposition to the assisted-suicide ban and 78 percent against the prohibition on nonresidents, according to The Telegraph.
Dignitas, an assisted-suicide clinic located in Zurich, has become known internationally as a destination for those from other countries seeking aid in killing themselves.
About 40 percent of those who committed suicide in Switzerland from 2005 to 2009 were from other countries, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.
Switzerland allows physician-assisted suicide for those with a terminal illness. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal in Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. Assisted suicide involves a doctor prescribing but not administering lethal drugs. In euthanasia, a physician administers the fatal dose.
Sex-selection abortions may have eliminated 3,000 girls in Taiwan
Illegal sex-selection abortions may have cost Taiwan as many as 3,000 female babies last year, a government official said May 15.
Chiu Shu-ti, director-general of Taiwan’s Bureau of Health Promotion, made the estimate after his department learned of a vast gender imbalance in births last year. The bureau found 10 of 11 babies delivered in a New Taipei City clinic were boys and 9 of 10 children born in a Taipei City hospital were males, according to an Agence France-Presse report of a United Daily News article.
Government authorities suspect physicians at the health-care facilities performed illegal abortions based on parents’ decisions following ultrasounds that showed their babies were girls, according to the report. Male preference is common on the Pacific Ocean island, as it is in some other Asian countries.
Doctors may be fined as much as $17,368 for performing sex-selection abortions, the report said.
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