Democrats in the Wisconsin state legislature on Tuesday blocked a vote on a pro-life bill, SB 306, that would protect women from coerced abortions and prevent the introduction of RU 486 abortions using webcams that deny women a doctor’s visit.
Senate Bill 306 is authored by Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) and Rep. Michelle Litjens (R-Oshkosh) and contains two vital components. The first portion of the bill protect a woman who is being coerced into having an abortion.
The second part would protect a woman from being prescribed RU 486 abortion drugs without being seen in person by the prescribing physician — and that has the strong support of Wisconsin Right to Life.
“Planned Parenthood is promoting webcam RU 486 abortions throughout the United States,” the organization says. “It works like this – a pregnant woman goes into a Planned Parenthood clinic and talks with an abortionist via a webcam screen. The abortionist could be located anywhere in the state or even in another state. Without ever having seen the woman in person, the abortionist is able to prescribe the dangerous RU 486 abortion drugs.”
“This is particularly onerous because the Federal Drug Administration has reported that in the United States, 14 women taking RU 486 have died and over 2,200 other serious complications have occurred,” WRTL explains. “Senate Bill 306 would require that the prescribing physician be in the same room as the pregnant woman when prescribing and administering RU 486 or any drug or chemical used to induce an abortion on a woman diagnosed as pregnant. This provision of Senate Bill 306 will prevent Planned Parenthood from beginning webcam abortions in Wisconsin.”
Despite the importance of the legislation to pro-life advocates, Democrats in the state Senate today temporarily stalled the bill after alleging it was supposedly an attack on women’s health care.
“Everyone knows this bill is about abortion,” says Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville. “It’s catering to those special interest groups who want to overturn Roe V. Wade.” https://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/capitol-report/capitol-report-senate-dems-stall-vote-on-abortion-bill/article_a5da659a-5c13-11e1-81de-0019bb2963f4.html
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin opposed the bill and the abortion business got Democrats to object to the third and final reading of SB 306, after Republicans topped weakening amendments to the legislation.
Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, defended her bill, saying it is about the “qualaity of care” for women.
The webcam abortion practice started with the Planned Parenthood of the Heartland affiliate using it in Iowa, a rural state where the abortion business has a difficult time getting an abortion practitioner to each of its clinics. As a result, it set up a process by which the abortion practitioner only visits with the woman considering using the mifepristone abortion pill via a videoconference, as opposed to an in-person visit the FDA suggests.
With the drug having killed dozens of women worldwide and injured more than 2,200 alone in the United States, according to April 2011 FDA figures, pro-life groups have been concerned about Planned Parenthood putting women’s health at risk.
Last year, Wisconsin Right to Life informed LifeNews that Planned Parenthood has begun using the extremely dangerous RU 486 web-cam abortion technique in Minnesota. According to Planned Parenthood Minnesota spokesperson Connie Lewis, the organization began doing webcam abortions at their Rochester facility — making it the first time the abortion business has expanded doing abortions beyond the twin cities area.
Wisconsin may be next for the webcam abortion process.
“We have known for some time about Planned Parenthood’s deadly plan to bring RU 486 web-cam abortions to cities and towns throughout the nation. First it was Iowa, then Minnesota. Now it appears Planned Parenthood is set to begin expanding its abortion business here in Wisconsin,” says Susan Armacost, the legislative director of Wisconsin Right to Life.
“Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) is already the state’s largest abortion provider but it is not content to limit the performance of abortions to its three abortions clinics in the state,” Amacost explained. “Now it appears it wants to offer dangerous RU 486 chemical abortions to women in towns and cities like Portage, Beaver Dam, Delavan and other Wisconsin locations where PPWI has not previously operated abortion clinics.”
“Since only a handful of doctors want to perform abortions, it would be difficult for PPWI to expand its surgical abortion operations. But by providing RU 486 web-cam abortions, PPWI can expand its lucrative abortion business without even having a doctor physically present,” Armacost goes on to say. “Web-cam abortions were initiated by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and piloted in Iowa where 2,000 of these abortions took place, with the intention of exporting this technique to other states. A woman enters a Planned Parenthood facility and discusses her abortion by web-cam with an abortionist in another city or perhaps even another state. After the information exchange, the abortionist presses a button which opens a drawer at the woman’s location. Her abortion drugs (RU 486 and prostaglandin, a labor-inducing drug) are in the drawer and the abortionist watches her take the medication via web-cam. The woman is never examined by the physician.”
RU 486 and its companion drug are administered between the fifth and ninth weeks of pregnancy, after pregnancy has been confirmed and the process typically involves three trips to a doctor. About half of the women abort while at the doctor’s office, with another 26 percent having an abortion within the next 20 hours at any location at home or in public. The remainder either have an abortion in the coming weeks or none at all of the drug fails to work — making it so a surgical abortion is required.
Through April, the FDA reports 2,207 adverse events related to the use of RU 486, including 14 deaths, 612 hospitalizations, 58 ectopic pregnancies, 339 blood transfusions, and 256 cases of infections in the United States alone. A European drug manufacturer has publicly stated that 28 women have died worldwide after using RU 486/mifepristone.
