Informed consent law good, now overturn Roe v. Wade

Spectrum by Karen Vosburgh

The Alaska State House and Senate passed a much-needed "informed consent" law this past session.

The informed consent law requires that women seeking an abortion are given information pertaining to the physical and psychological damages that can be incurred by their abortion, which are numerous and varied.

According to Dr. David Reardon, the director of the Elliot Institute for Social Services, nearly 80 percent of the women surveyed believed they were denied information or were actively misinformed by their counselors prior to their abortions.

This legislation requires that women also be given accurate and scientific information about the developing child within them. After all, women should understand fully what they are about to kill. The majority of people don't realize that a baby's heart begins beating at 18 days after conception and that the baby is fully formed at three months in the womb, although only about 3 inches long. The child simply grows larger in weight and size after that point.

Some people prefer that the term "fetus" be used instead of any term that acknowledges personhood of the pre-born baby. F.Y.I.: "fetus" is a Latin term that means "little one." It's distressing to me that pro-abortion groups, such as Planned Parenthood, did not want this legislation passed. They do not want women to be fully informed and they want to censor the information given. How pro-choice is that?

The good news about the abortion debate is that the majority of our nation has become more pro-life due to education. Nearly 70 percent of Americans say they favor "restoring legal protection for unborn children." For so many years, the lies and deceptions put forth by the pro-aborts were swallowed by the public -- hook, line and sinker.

The lie that 10,000 women were dying each year because of back-alley abortions was perpetuated by the National Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws in 1968. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who is now an ex-abortionist, was a founder and member of that organization.

The truth is, the last year that abortions were illegal, 39 women died from their abortion, not 10,000. And the majority of Americans were not in favor of legalized abortion, contrary to the fabricated polling of the above-stated organization. But, I ask you, how else can a half-billion-dollar-a-year baby- killing industry operate, except by misinformation? How can that be made palatable?

However, the more informed a person becomes on this issue, the more pro-life they become. Almost 80 percent of the nation believes that abortion should be allowed only for situations of rape, incest or life of the mother. And a good portion of those believes only for life of the mother.

The sad truth is over 95 percent of the 1.4 million abortions committed in our nation each year are for birth-control purposes. How obscene is that? With all of the means to prevent unintended pregnancies, many women still don't have a clue about their own fertility. There are only a few days a month that women are fertile. It's not rocket science!

Informed consent is not anti-woman legislation. It's pro-life, pro-woman and extremely helpful. Pro-life legislators have been called names like "extremist anti-choice" by pro-abortion supporters. The extremists are the people on the side of killing innocent pre-born babies. But, this will come to an end.

One hundred fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African- Americans were merely property. It was wrong and that ruling was overturned.

One hundred twenty-five years ago, American Indians were declared non-human. Wrong!

Sixty years ago the Jews were exterminated and defined as non-human. Wrong!

And in 1973, six U.S. Supreme Court justices decided that pre-born babies could be exterminated by their own mothers' decision. The devastating result is 45 million babies have been murdered by legal abortion.

This unlawful decision will also be reversed.

Karen Vosburgh is the executive director of Alaska Right to Life.