Friday, June 19, 2015

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE INFORMED CONSENT FOR ABORTION LAW



The path to a law requiring women seeking an abortion to be fully informed and made aware of alternatives to abortion was long and painful. The first attempt was in the latter part of the 29th Guam Legislature after a bill banning partial birth abortion was signed into law.


Partial birth abortion entails pulling the child out of the womb by its feet and then stabbing him or her in the back of the head before the head fully exits the birth canal.



The informed consent bill received a public hearing but never made it to a vote.


The effort was resurrected in the next legislature as Bill 54-30 and spent nearly two years languishing in committee. It finally made it on to a session agenda after a barrage of negative publicity by The Esperansa Project. However, Sen. Respicio, the Rules Committee Chair, with the help of Speaker Won Pat, clandestinely* introduced a substitute bill which gutted the original bill of every relevant provision, making the bill not only pointless but actually promoting abortion by leaving in place the one provision advising the expectant mother of the risks of carrying her child to term.
*"clandestinely" because the speaker never called for the vote required to substitute a bill on the floor.

Learn more about Bill 54-30 here.

In the next Legislature, the effort was again resurrected as Bill 52-31 and again Senator Respicio substituted another completely gutted version when it came before his Rules Committee. For the next two years, the Esperansa Project publicly engaged Senator Respicio over his radical support to keep abortion on Guam completely unfettered by regulation. Finally in October of 2012, Governor Calvo called a special session of the legislature which turned into a huge drama with the bill finally passing but not before Respicio again booby trapped it with a provision that required the printed materials and checklist required by the bill to be subjected to a rule making process. This kept the bill, even after it was signed into law, from being implemented. Again, Respicio and his pro-aborts thought they had won.

Learn more about Bill 52-31 here

However, the Esperansa Project asked the Attorney General to review the rule-making requirement and the AG opined that the materials could not be subjected to the rule process because the materials were not “rules”.

At this point another bill (Bill 193-32) was introduced to delete the obstructing provision and implement the law. Again Respicio and the pro-aborts messed with the process demanding that a panel review and approve the materials. However, this time Respicio made a mistake. He and the pro-aborts in the legislature forgot to reserve the right to appoint the panel for themselves - and they certainly would have appointed pro-aborts. The panel was appointed by the Director of Public Health and finally the materials were approved and the informed consent law was officially implemented in June of 2014.

Learn more about Bill 193-32 here. Copy of Public Law 32-089

This meant that as of at least July 2014 abortion practitioners were required to complete a checklist certification with each woman seeking an abortion and give each one the required printed materials to review. As per the informed consent law, the number of checklist certifications were to be reported monthly to Guam Medical Records.
(5) Prior to the abortion, the woman certifies in writing on a
checklist certification provided by the Department that the information
required to be provided under Subsections (b)(l), (b)(2) and (b)(3) of
this § 3218.1 has been provided. All physicians who perform abortions
shall report the total number of certifications received monthly to the
Records Section. The Records Section shall make the number of
certifications received available to the public on an annual basis.
http://www.guamcourts.org/CompilerofLaws/GCA/10gca/10gc003.PDF 
In February of 2015, Esperansa Project member, Tim Rohr, inquired with Guam Medical Records as to the number of checklist certifications which were supposed to be provided by the abortionists. At the same time, Rohr also inquired with Vital Statistics which is tasked with tracking the number of abortions as per the abortionists monthly reports, also required by law.

The Vital Statistics data showed that 209 abortions had been performed in 2014 with 106 of those after July 1, which means that Guam Medical Records should have received an account of 106 checklist certifications as per the informed consent law.

Go here to download a copy of the 2014 Abortion Report. 

Guam Medical Records, confirmed twice that it had received NONE. This means that Guam’s abortionists completely disregarded the informed consent law.

Read Rohr's entire communication with Guam Medical Records here

In answer to those who have asked about the criminal penalties for non-compliance with the informed consent law, the law provides the following:
(f) Criminal Penalties. Any person who intentionally, knowingly, or
recklessly violates this Act is guilty of a misdemeanor. 
(g) Civil and Administrative Claims. In addition to whatever remedies
are available under the common law or statutory laws of Guam, failure to
comply with the requirements of this Act shall:  
     (1) in the case of an intentional violation of the Act, constitute
prima facie evidence of a failure to obtain informed consent. When
requested, the court shall allow a woman upon whom an abortion was
performed or attempted to be performed allegedly in violation of this
Act to be identified in any action brought pursuant to this Act using
solely her initials or the pseudonym “Jane Doe.” Further, with or
without a request, the court may close any proceedings in the case from
public attendance, and the court may enter other protective orders in its
discretion to preserve the privacy of the woman upon whom the
abortion was performed or attempted to be performed allegedly in
violation of this Act. 
     (2) Provide a basis for professional disciplinary action under 10GCA § 11110. (Medical Malpractice Reform Act of 1975) 
     (3) Provide a basis for recovery for the woman for the wrongful
death of her unborn child under Title 7 GCA § 12109, whether or not
the unborn child was born alive or was viable at the time the abortion
was performed. (Wrongful Death of Adults or Certain Minors)
We will be watching to see if any of these penalties are enforced, however, we make a special call to Governor Calvo to see to this law's enforcement since the implementation of an informed consent for abortion law was an effort he shepherded into being both as a senator and as a governor over a period of 6 years, from 2008 to 2014.

We will be updating you.

Get all the Guam abortion data here

The next legislative effort by The Esperansa Project will be to revisit "THE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT OF 2011", otherwise known as the Fetal Pain bill and would ban procedures like this one:



Learn more at www.Esperansa.org

NEWS STORIES

"Abortion Informed Consent Law is Not Being Followed" - PNC NEWS
Legislation ensures abortion providers follow rules - KUAM


5 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting this information. So sad that this procedure is practiced anywhere. There are many "pharoahs" whose hearts are hardened.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. I'm sure you're referring to the abortionist.

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    2. I sure hope you were referring to the abortionist. The hard work done by The Esperanza Group, coordinated by Tom Rohr and some really great people, has done much to save babies here on Guam.

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  3. Marilu D. MartinezJune 21, 2015 at 1:11 PM

    When about half or more of pregnant women seeking abortion were asked whether they would follow thru with getting an abortion -- after being counseled and given facts and information about the abortion procedure itself; after being given statistics that present factual and statistical information about the mental, emotional, physical and medical risks of aborting their unborn babies -- their answers were an emphatic “No”. When also asked whether they still felt the same about abortion altogether, the counseled women said they had a change of heart and mind.

    What’s more, when these women are presented alternatives like adoption (and the fact that on Guam we have a waiting list of eager potential loving couples ready to take these babies as their own) pregnant woman -- even the fathers of their unborn babies who happened to accompany the women being counseled -- also expressed a sense of relief to learn that adoption is not only open to them, but a plausible and doable alternative.

    Thus, the more women are informed and become knowledgeable about the abortion procedures, what it does to the unborn baby they carry and the risks they face, the lower the chances become of their going thru with their abortion. This is why it is critical that we adamantly push (thru our local legislators) for the enforcement of the abortion "Informed Consent Law", and the enforcement of the penalties noted in that law for those who violate this law.

    ReplyDelete