JURIST - Paper Chase: Wisconsin governor vetoes abortion bill to warn women of fetal pain

[JURIST] Wisconsin [JURIST news archive] Governor Jim Doyle [official website] vetoed a bill [PDF text] Friday that would have made doctors inform women seeking abortions after the fifth month of pregnancy that their fetuses may feel pain. The bill passed [Boston Globe report] the Republican controlled Assembly by a count of 61-34 in early November and the Senate by a count of 21-12 in late September. In a veto statement [text] Doyle said:

This bill intrudes on the doctor patient relationship in a heavy handed manner and means doctors don’t have to provide objective and accurate information to their patients. In any case, I trust doctors, not the Legislature, to make medical judgments. We should keep the doctor-patient relationship between doctors and patients and keep the Legislature out of it.

Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota have similar notification requirements and federal legislation is pending. Wisconsin already requires doctors to provide information to women seeking abortions about alternatives to ending their pregnancies and requires women to wait at least 24 hours in between a counseling session and an abortion procedure. AP has more.

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