Scott Walker: Doctors Should Lie to Pregnant Women to Prevent Abortions

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/30104-scott-walker-doctors-should-lie-to-pregnant-women-to-prevent-abortions

Say an obstetrician in Milwaukee was performing a routine ultrasound on a pregnant woman and tragically discovered that the fetus had a serious developmental disability. In Wisconsin, that doctor is legally (not to mention ethically) required to inform the patient.

However, if then-Rep. Scott Walker (R) had gotten his way, Wisconsin doctors who opposed abortion would have been allowed to withhold that information from the woman if the doctor feared she might get an abortion.

Along with 34 other lawmakers, Walker introduced AB 538 in September 1997. At the time, if a health care provider withheld information about a fetal disability while abortion was still an available option, they could be liable for the child’s future medical expenses. But AB 538 would have changed that.

According to the bill’s text:

This bill creates an immunity from a wrongful birth or wrongful life action for a person who commits an act or fails to commit an act and that act or omission results in the birth of a child because a woman did not undergo an abortion that she would have undergone had the person not committed the act or not failed to commit the act.

In other words, the bill would make it legal for pro-life doctors to withhold information from patients.