The N&O ran a great editorial yesterday, 5/13/11, "INVASIVE LAW, Attempts to legislate ideological and religious doctrine on abortion infringe on privacy rights". Please read it at http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/13/1193944/invasive-law.html This is the ironically named "Women's Right to Know" Act, (WRTK).

This WRTK bill, which includes many of the worst laws from across the country all stuffed into one, manages to make illegal abortions seriously faster and easier for patients and for doctors. The bill is patronizing and demeaning toward women. This bill has so many awful parts, it could be known by a variety of more appropriate names than WRTK.

It mandates state sponsored information be delivered by the clinic and mandates waiting periods (24 hours so can think about it plus 4 hours after required ultrasound) implying women don't seriously consider medical procedures and decisions without the state's forcing them to do so. From that perspective, it could be called the "Women Are Stupid" Act.

Or it could be the "Guilt them out of it" Act - since it forces every woman - whether pregnant by rape or incest or needing to abort a wanted child due to serious medical issues - to listen to someone describe the fetus in a mandated ultrasound. The 24 hour and extra 4 hour waiting periods are part of guilting a woman.

Or it could be the "Make abortions prohibitively expensive and time consuming" Act - that would be forcing women to pay for ultrasounds for unwanted fetuses, hundreds of dollars - and also the 24 hour waiting period and the 4 hour waiting period. These waiting periods are inconvenient for every woman, but they could break the bank for poor women - who can't afford to lose 2 full days of work in all cases, but if they have to travel, they also could have the extra expenses of transportation, child care, overnight stay, wages lost.

There is another aspect to this bill that targets abortion doctors. Doctors names must be provided to every patient, civil 'remedies' are included in the act, special new reports from the doctors and clinics are required. These clinics are being burdened more and differently than other medical clinics. This would make it the "Target Doctors and Clinics Who Perform Abortions" Act.

See the text of the house bill at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2011/Bills/House/PDF/H854v1.pdf

And this is only one of a series of terrible bills being discussed in NC right now. Hear more about bad bills and bad budgets at our event in N. Raleigh at 3pm today - "Women Need Us NOW". Contact president@raleighnow.org for more info.