Kentucky's Senate just decided that women seeking abortions aren't shamed enough about it. They aren't mentally and emotionally wrecked, aren't afraid and tortured enough already.

        The Senate — made up nearly entirely of people who will never need an abortion — Wednesday approved making Kentucky's already draconian abortion laws even harsher, more restrictive, more potentially dangerous.

        Let's hope it dies in the House.

        Per Sen. Katie Stine, R-Fort Thomas, Kentucky would require face-to-face counseling, in addition to the 24-hour waiting period already required. Apparently counseling by phone, email, fax, online chat and regular mail — permitted now — aren't enough to help a woman decide. Let's make it even more mortifying.

        Kentucky is not the only state talking tough on abortions.

        Nationwide, 31 states, like Kentucky and Ohio, require “informed consent” before abortion. That means health-care clinicians must say specific things about the ramifications of abortion before a woman can be considered informed enough to get one.

        Twenty-one states, including Kentucky and Ohio, also require a waiting period, usually 24 hours, from the time a woman first seeks an abortion to when she gets one.

        Never mind that most adult Americans don't need a state-mandated 24 hours to decide on other life-changing matters — including abandoning a child at a hospital emergency room.

        A recent survey of 500 Greater Cincinnati adults found that 62 percent agree with Kentucky's informed-consent abortion laws. By gender, 67 percent of women and 56 percent of men agree, according to the poll by SurveyUSA for WCPO-TV (Channel 9).

        Three of five adults who support the law say phone counseling isn't enough. There's a 4.4-percent margin of error.

        Sen. Stine's face-to-face measure effectively would lengthen the 24-hour waiting period to 48 hours, at least, for many Kentucky women. In Kentucky, the only acknowledged abortion clinics are in Lexington and Louisville. That requires a trip of several hours just for the procedure. With mandatory, face-to-face consultation, that means two days away from a job that pays the bills, two days away from other family members who need her.

        Imagine what it's like: Nearly all didn't want to or hadn't expected to get pregnant. Many hold jobs outside their homes or have relationships inside their homes that would be endangered by their pregnancies.

        Then, there's the ignominy. Most women aren't comfortable requesting a few hours off for a gynecological checkup. Imagine trying to tell the boss the time off is needed for an abortion.

        Might as well brand that scarlet letter A onto the woman's forehead first.

        Instead, women might hedge by asking the boss for time off for a “procedure.” They wouldn't be lying, just being discreet. Under the new law, they'll need to ask for those hours off for two days.

        And here's a twist: The same lawmakers who decided women need less privacy about abortion and pregnancy this week voted to give themselves — and public servants like them — more privacy when it comes to government.

        They need time in secret sessions, they said, to make certain crucial government decisions with less scrutiny and more security.

        So do women need times when they're subjected to less scrutiny and more security in their personal lives.

        Maybe we should mandate that lawmakers face a 24-hour waiting period and face-to-face informed consent before they can enact laws that affect the lives of others.

       Denise Smith Amos can be reached at 768-8395. Fax 768-8340 or e-mail damos@enquirer.com.
       

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