It looks like Gov. Charlie Crist got it right. Last month, he vetoed a bill that would have seriously infringed a woman’s right to choose.
The bill would have forced women seeking an abortion to get an ultrasound in the first trimester — when most abortions occur — and listen to a doctor describe the fetus, unless they signed a form not to do so.
It’s scary to think how this even came to be. Anti-abortion activists actually sat down and thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it really help our cause for a doctor to describe, in detail, a fetus sitting inside the womb of a woman seeking an abortion? Yeah, that should really change her mind.”
It wouldn’t shock us if the bill had provisions for the doctor to convince the already traumatized woman that she was about to give birth to the next Tim Tebow.
You can’t deny it would make for another great Super Bowl commercial.
What’s more upsetting is that the bill had conditions so that tax dollars wouldn’t cover elective abortions.
We know what you’re thinking: “Well, why should my tax dollars cover another person’s abortion?”
Here’s why: It’s pretty likely that much more of your tax dollars would have gone into raising that unborn fetus had it been born.
Crist responded to the bill by saying it “… places an inappropriate burden on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy. Personal views should not result in laws that unwisely expand the role of government and coerce people to obtain medical tests or procedures that are not medically necessary.”
To us that’s putting it lightly.
We find it funny that the same conservative politicians who complain about big government interfering in the lives of citizens found it OK to attempt to place such constraints on a pregnant woman.
If you hate big government, then you should especially hate it when it comes to anything involving health care.
We bet anti-abortion politicians would have been less inclined to bash health care reform had these types of measures been in President Barack Obama’s plan.
To us, Crist actually did a very conservative thing by vetoing the bill.
He felt that, despite his own personal beliefs, giving the government this type of power over women seeking abortions was unfair and unconstitutional.
Who cares about his “anti-abortion past”?
His decision was based upon what was best for all, not just those with his beliefs. More than half of voters wanted him to veto the bill.
He listened to the wants of Floridians, not lobbyists from the right wing.
Republican State Sen. Andy Gardiner, who sponsored the ultrasound provision, responded to Crist vetoing the bill by saying, “If you really wanted people to change hearts, what better way than to see a heartbeat. There are a lot of broken hearts today.”
Well, senator, not here there aren’t.
2 comments
You bemoan the “constraints” this bill would have placed on women. Wow, hearing a doctor describe what’s going on inside of you is very constraining…I can’t imagine being more constrained. This bill was likely not designed to radically alter the abortion scene but slow momentum. The pro-life movement’s core belief is that unborn fetuses are individuals – and doing something to encourage people to recognize this fact is a helpful step.