Making good choices

South Dakota’s Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed into law the 72-hour waiting period for abortions, with the requirement that the patient go to a “pregnancy help center,” which I discussed last month. Said the governor, “I hope that women who are considering an abortion will use this three-day period to make good choices.” He’s not pro-choice, he’s pro-good-choice.

Were there even more condescending remarks made about this law today? Why yes, yes there were. Rep. Roger Hunt, the main sponsor, said, “Women need to just be reminded of the fact there is a natural, legal relationship between them and their child.” See, he just wants them to be reminded, because they need to be reminded, preferably by an untrained anti-abortion activist, to “ensure that the woman would be able to have access to both sides of the story”. You can just picture a woman with an unwanted pregnancy smacking her head and saying, “I knew I was forgetting something, and it’s that there is a natural, legal relationship between me and my child. Thank you, Rep. Hunt, for ensuring that I am reminded of that. Also, what the hell does that actually mean, a ‘legal relationship’ between the woman and her child?”

I’d like to repeat my suggestion to women affected by this law in SD that they not go to a pregnancy health center if they don’t want to, and lie about it.

Update: The WaPo quotes (and misspells) Leslee Unruh, founder of the Alpha Center (“Clearing the confusion with a message of hope”), one of those so-called pregnancy health centers: “If we truly want to have less abortions, let’s give these women the 72 hours they need to make this decision on their own without being coerced.” Unruh, who in the past promoted legislation requiring doctors to tell patients that abortion causes depression and sterility, was once convicted of paying pregnant women not to have abortions, and then illegally arranging the adopting of those babies. So there’s coercion and coercion, I guess.