For an unborn child, there is no place more dangerous than the inside of an abortion clinic. Although abortion is sold to the mother under the guise of “choice,” the child herself has no voice and no vote as to whether she will live or die.
In my three decades serving women in this most vulnerable situation, I’ve heard countless stories of lives saved through the power of ultrasound. A true and vital “window into the womb,” an ultrasound is a unique chance for a mother and her significant others, including the father of the baby, to form a lasting bond with her unborn child.
This is why an ultrasound before an abortion is essential. This may be the only chance for a vulnerable child to make herself heard. And the only chance for a mother to come face to face with the life-changing, and potentially life-saving, reality that the child she carries is not just a “clump of cells” or a generic “fetus,” but her very own child.
Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr., a law professor at the University of Alabama, recently made clear in a Washington Post op-ed that not everyone celebrates the power of ultrasound. Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision to deny review and uphold a statewide ultrasound law in Kentucky, Krotoszynski argued that the government requiring abortion practitioners to give a woman a glimpse into the womb is a violation of free speech.
Based on a faulty understanding of the Supreme Court’s ruling in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, Krotoszynski misinterpreted the court’s decision to nullify informed consent requirements such as ultrasounds. Thankfully, he is wrong — it doesn’t.
No matter where you stand on abortion, we can all agree that it is a medical procedure with serious consequences. Showing women accurate information about the child within their wombs is not a matter of an abortion practitioner’s free speech, but a woman’s informed consent before undergoing a medical procedure.
Enacted in early 2017, Kentucky’s law ensures that every mother has the chance to see a live image of her baby and hear her baby’s heartbeat before agreeing to the abortion. The best choice in any medical procedure is an informed choice, and Kentucky’s ultrasound law ensures just that.
Yet, while failing to produce a woman who could claim Kentucky’s law harmed her, an abortion clinic sued to try to strike it down. Although a lower court granted the clinic a temporary win, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit overturned that ruling in April.
In its decision, the 6th Circuit pointed out that the key issue in the case wasn’t informed consent before a medical procedure but free speech. The case affirms two things: First, that the government can’t force people to speak a message against their beliefs; and second, that states are free to enact laws ensuring informed consent to abortion by requiring doctors to give truthful, relevant information to women.
Zeroing in on that distinction, the 6th Circuit wrote that “even though an abortion-informed-consent law compels a doctor’s disclosure of certain information, it should be upheld so long as the disclosure is truthful, non-misleading, and relevant to abortion.”
Is knowing what your baby looks like or hearing her heartbeat “relevant to abortion”? It certainly is for the woman who feels as if she has no other choice in an unexpected pregnancy. Again, this is a medical procedure with serious implications for a woman’s long-term physical, psychological, and emotional health — and with serious consequences for the baby.
Just the fact that abortion clinics are willing to fight informed consent laws such as Kentucky’s all the way to the Supreme Court speaks volumes about the way the abortion industry works. It’s in its business interest to hide information from women before an abortion, so women don’t change their minds and choose life for their babies.
Anne O’Connor, J.D. is vice president of legal affairs at the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), a nonprofit providing legal counsel, education, and training for a network of more than 1,500 pregnancy centers and medical clinics nationwide.
