Governor Doyle Defends Patients' Rights
Vetoes dangerous Misinformed Consent Bill, requiring doctors to give unscientific information to women seeking abortions
Madison, WI – Today, Governor Jim Doyle vetoed the Misinformed Consent Bill, which would have mandated that doctors give coercive and medically insupportable information to patients.
The legislation was pushed by Republican legislators to further restrict women’s access to reproductive health care and medical privacy. In the current legislative session, conservatives have lead an attack on Wisconsin patients, introducing more than a dozen measures that jeopardize the health, safety, and privacy of Wisconsinites, particularly women.
“Once again, Governor Jim Doyle has stood up against those who seek to destroy our access to health care and information,” said Kelda Helen Roys, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. “Wisconsinites are grateful that Governor Doyle has made increasing access to affordable, high-quality health care a priority, and that he has vetoed every Republican attempt to roll back patients’ rights.”
The Misinformed Consent Bill (2005 SB 138) would amend Wisconsin's current biased counseling and mandatory delay law to include additional misinformation. It would force doctors to coerce and misinform all women seeking to terminate their pregnancies regarding claims about fetal development that are not supported by the scientific community.
Health care providers spoke out against the bill during hearings, and the Wisconsin Medical Society opposed it because it would intrude upon the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Ellen Hartenbach, a women’s cancer specialist, testified against the bill, saying it was unnecessary and not “created with appropriate empathy and theraputic intent.” Another family physician, Dr. Kathy Oriel, said the bill “compromises my ability to provide all of my patients with comprehensive care and accurate information.”
Proponents of similar bills have openly admitted that their true intent is to coerce women into carrying their pregnancies to term. “This bill is motivated not by concern for women's health, but by a desire to prevent women and doctors from making their own reproductive health care decisions,” said Roys.
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