Elected Official Letter

Letter to Official Steven V. Oroho, District 24, New Jersey Re: Obstetrical Ultrasound/Sonogram Dear Mr. Oroho: This letter is written in support of the Bill Introduced in Senate No. 2896 in the State of New Jersey 213th Legislature in June, 2009. The Bill in regards to an act in relation to obstetrical ultrasounds which supplements Title 26 of the Revised Statues and which is known as the 'Full Disclosure Ultrasound Act'.

This Act states that "All facilities in which abortion procedures are performed, and all facilities whose practitioners refer patients for abortions, shall have either functional ultrasound or sonogram equipment on site or shall have access to such equipment through other medical facilities." (New Jersey Legislature, nd, p.

1) In addition the act states as follows: "As part of the informed consent to the abortion procedure, a patient desiring an abortion shall be offered an opportunity to undergo an ultrasound or sonogram and view the ultrasound or sonogram image of the embryo or fetus." (New Jersey Legislature, nd, p. 1) The ultrasound or sonogram is required to be conducted within 48 hours from the time of physician referral and must be conducted "not less than 48 hours prior to an abortion procedure being conducted.

Any physician failing to offer or refuses to offer a patient seeking an abortion the chance to have a ultrasound or sonogram image before proceeding with the abortion is "subject to a civil penalty as provided in this section. The civil penalty prescribed by this section shall be collected and enforced by summary proceedings in the court having jurisdiction pursuant to the provisions of the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.)." (New Jersey Legislature, nd, p.

1) When a court of appropriate jurisdiction in the State of New Jersey finds that a "respondent in an action commenced under this act has knowingly violated a provision of this act, the court shall notify the State Board of Medical Examiners, and assess a civil penalty against the respondent in an amount of no less than $10,000, but not to exceed $100,000." (New Jersey Legislature, nd, p.

1) It is important to note that when a patient receives an abortion procedure in direct violation of this act "the parent or legal guardian of the patient if the patient is an unemancipated minor, may commence a civil action against the physician for any willful violation of this act for actual and punitive damages" (New Jersey Legislature, nd, p. 1) However, according to research the requirement of the pre-abortion sonogram is not changing the minds of women who are set for receiving the abortion procedure.

It is reported in the work of Pappas (2011) that in a study published in the journal of Contraception in 2009 that "Wiebe analyzed how many women chose to look at the embryonic or fetal tissue removed during an abortion. Only about 28% of women were interested -- "they're curious," Wiebe said -- but of those, 83% said that viewing the embryo or fetus did not make the process more emotionally difficult." (p. 1) Therefore,.