The Nazis banned abortion. Nice try, dimwit.

I forget who claimed that women are smart enough to make the right decisions, and thus won't get fooled by the duplicity of the anti-abortion crowd. Whoever this poster was, she should consider that there are certain elements in this society that unfortunately aren't that bright. I could be mistaken, but I think this is what Marx called the "lumpen proletariat." They get pregnant constantly. See also "dysgenics."

Ah, Vasumurti, why do the anti-abortion types also oppose contraception, and in this case, sterilization, if they aren't out to control sexuality?

And Shazzer... you mention periodically that you can't get anyone to sterilize you. Nobody will do it? I know that some doctors will somewhere, because plenty of childfree people are able to do it. Do you think you might need to relocate for a while?

that while medical providers do have the 'right' to their religious beliefs, that since they are licensed by the State, the State then has an interest in what they do. And what they may NOT do is discriminate in any way against their patients getting whatever medical procedure they want/need.

The case involved a lesbian woman wanting AI. The doctor put a sticky note in her file with the word "dyke?" on it and that was the basis for the lawsuit - she was being denied this procedure due to her sexuality. The defendants claimed it was because she was 'unmarried'.

The Court held that since the doctors were licensed by the State they could not refuse to provide the service to her unless they also refused to provide the service to any unmarried person - and that they could not discriminate against various people based on their personal religious beliefs.

I find this quite interesting because I think it could be used as precedent in this case. I don't believe that doctors could be 'forced' to perform abortions per se, but if you choose to work in a field where you might, on occasion, be asked to do so, you don't have a right to refuse under the terms of your license. So, license revoked, or go find a job somewhere that you would not be exposed to whatever it is you object to.

I would suggest that you go into cosmetic surgery, pathology, podiatry, urology, orthopedics, neurology or neurosurgery. But for heavens sake, stay away from OB/GYN, general surgery, anything to do with the emergency room, and of course, general practice! If these people are so opposed to these procedures, why do they choose to practice in fields where it comes up? Unless they are doing it deliberately in an attempt to cause problems - in which case they SHOULD lose their licenses.

To the poster who thinks Planned Parenthood should 'just open some new clinics' in states like Mississippi (and currently there are NO clinics in that state). If it were that easy - they would not be closing right and left. Most counties used to have clinics, or at least providers willing to perform the procedure in their own office. BUt due to legislation, attacks, threats, etc. more and more clinics are closing their doors. The clinic in South Dakota was staffed only 2 days per week by a provider who was also the only abortion provider in southern Montana, South Dakota, and northern Wyoming. She traveled like an itinerant preacher to give women acces that was legal.

Some of the laws used to close clinics don't look like they have anything to do with abortions. Like the one requiring the clinic to be within a certain distance of a hospital. (A clinic was forced to close because it was 23 feet outside this imaginary boundary line.) Or the ones changing the zoning and allowing no medical/surgical facilities. Or the ones requiring that the hallways be 8 feet wide (typical for a full-service hospital - certainly not typical for any other type of construction). Add harassment of doctors and their families including their elementary-aged children at school, shootings, bombings, the daily protests, (until the protestors need an abortion and all of a sudden the clinic isn't a bunch of demons with horns and pitchforks after all) and a whole variety of things that have closed clinics and forced abortion providers to stop providing services. Services which are LEGAL!

All this crap will not stop abortions - women who want one will be just doing the hangar thingy in the back alley again like they used to before Roe, or doctors who are willing will start doing 'D&C' for fibroids or metrorhagia, like they used to.

But the paternalism behind some of these comments bugs me. The implication is that, as a woman, I'm qualified to decide what to do about my body, but I'm somehow reduced to paralyzing helplessness if the first doctor who confirms the two little lines on the strip doesn't preform abortions! Ladies, if we're smart enough to make the right choices, we're smart enough to distinguish planned parenthood from a crisis pregnancy center. And we're tough enough to pull out the yellow pages and make a few phone calls if needed.

And what's with the blaming of pro-life doctors for the lack of abortion providers in rural areas? What's stopping planned parenthood from opening a few new facilities?

Jehovah's Witnesses, if I understand correctly, will not accept blood transfusions themselves. That does not necessarily mean they will refuse them to others.

(As for the soldier who refuses to shoot, there ARE C.O.s, have been in every war. And yes, some of them go to prison rather than go into combat.)

If one DID go into the paramedical field, it is with the full expectation that one will be required to perform blood transfusions. That is not the case with OB/GYNs and abortion--as a previous poster pointed out, people can be OB/GYNs for half a century and never perform a single abortion. There are even gynecologists who do NOT deliver babies--they're in the minority, but are an unfortunately growing percentage of this field, esp. in poor, rural areas of Appalachia.

If an OB/GYN objects to abortion, he/she should not get a job at Planned Parenthood or another clinic or organization that specifically supplies abortion, and then refuse to perform abortions. His/her skills would be put to much greater use, both on an everyday practical level and for the pro-life movement as a whole, by providing free or low-cost medical care at a crisis pregnancy center. (And yes, real, helpful ones DO exist.)

@Juliebird--you mentioned ectopic pregnancy. Not that there aren't some nutjobs out there who might refuse to operate, but every pro-life doctor I know of would operate to save the woman's life. This is not a case of abortion so much as triage: the fetus will die, with or without the operation. Yes, removing the fallopian tube hastens fetal death, but that is not the intent. Unless the operation is performed in a timely manner, BOTH the woman and the fetus will die. It is better to save one than to do nothing and let both die.