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Letter: Stop trying to legislate women’s bodies

(Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) A protester poses for a photograph during a rally in the capitol rotunda in Salt Lake City on May 21. This rally was part of a nationwide series of protests to bring attention as a number of conservative states pass laws aimed at getting abortion before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here’s a new thought about government intrusion into the lives of women in our state. Perhaps our male legislators could try this new type of colonic ultrasound. They would be forced into visiting a physician, and while lying on their side on a cold table have a 10-12 inch probe inserted into their anus. After insertion, they would continue to lay on the table for 30-45 minutes while the doctor examined their sigmoid colon and talked to them about bowel sounds and polyps. Oh, and their bladder should be full the entire time. Following the procedure, they could return to the legislative session and vote on House Bill 364.

Why, oh why, do men — usually older and wearing gray suits — feel it mandatory to control women and their bodies and to interfere with their patient-doctor relationships? These legislators are not licensed to practice medicine.

Michelle Quist is right. We should be angry. We should be mad. The female senators who walked off the Senate floor on Tuesday are correct in showing their disdain for this bill. Abortion should be free of legislative meddling; it should be a choice made by a woman, her family and her physician. And we should all be angry that our state government continues to try to deny women the right to basic health care.

Constance Ward, Salt Lake City

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