Controversial abortion ban

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, no stranger to controversy, has signed into law the first ban in the US on abortions based on gender or race selection. Once this law goes into affect, doctors who perform abortions will face felony charges if it can be shown that they were aware of the parent’s motivation to select sex or race.

The women undergoing the procedure would not be penalized.

State legislatures have pointed out that this is a first, no other state in the union has an abortion law like this one. Backers say this will put an end to sex and race discrimination at the point of conception. It is more about the discrimination than the right to life issues which loom around it.

“Governor Brewer believes society has a responsibility to protect its most vulnerable – the unborn – and this legislation is consistent with her strong pro-life track record,” as spokesman for her office said.

Many opponents have come forward to say that this type of selection is rare in the United States and that we are hardly a nation like China that builds in incentives for one sex over another. Planned Parenthood has said this could be part of a larger erosion of women’s reproductive rights, especially in a nation swinging conservative for the moment. “This law creates a highly unusual requirement that women state publicly their reason for choosing to terminate a pregnancy – a private decision they already made with their physician, partner and family,” said Brian Howard, PP’s chief executive.

While that’s not exactly true, the law makes no such requirement of a woman or a doctor, we’ll have to see what if any repercussions there are. The law takes affect in 90 days.

Source: Reuters