Ray apparently assumes that women need legislation to force them to take seriously the decision to have an abortion. He also assumes he knows more about what a fetus is and is not capable of feeling than scientists who recently published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found fetal brains do not sense pain until 29 or 30 weeks.
Many women who undergo abortions must do so because of medical problems with the fetus or the pregnancy. In the midst of this agonizing realization, does a woman need to be told the procedure will be painful for the fetus? We believe that would be cruel and unjustifiable, especially when medical science does not support the image this woman would have to bear of her fetus writhing in pain during an abortion procedure.
Women who choose abortion for other reasons seldom do so without seriously contemplating the consequences. They do not need to be coerced into giving birth by being forced to think of their unborn child's pain, especially when it may not exist.
Ray's hope that " . . . the mother would think about it" is evidence either of his arrogance or his ignorance. Under the law, the decision to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to abort a fetus belongs to the women who have to endure the ramifications of their decision. In the vast majority of cases they carefully weigh all the alternatives, seeking information and advice from people they know and trust.
Contrary to what Ray seems to think, women are capable of deciding what is best for them without the unsolicited interference of people who believe they or the state have a duty to get involved.
It is neither Ray's obligation nor his right to force counsel on Utah women regarding this most personal and emotional matter.
The Utah Legislature has tried before to restrict women's constitutional right to abortion, and taxpayers paid the cost of defending what was found to be an unconstitutional law.
This attempt to incorporate a legislator's personal beliefs - that women should choose to give birth and allow their babies to be adopted - into a law would torment, not educate or help, women considering abortion.
It should be rejected.
