Here’s the question we asked our readers:
“Would you support legislation that would require the state to publish the names of each doctor who performs an abortion and detailed statistics (not her name) about the woman having the procedure?”
Here’s how readers responded:
60 Percent Yes
37 Percent No
3 Percent Unsure
We came to ask this question because of a proposed bill in the state of Tennessee that would require the state “to publish the names of each doctor who performs an abortion and detailed statistics about the woman having the procedure…”
We should all be able to agree that publishing the name of the woman who has the abortion is a very bad and unethical idea, but obtaining the statistical information on women is the best way to understand what can be done to help these women and given them options other than abortion.
A case can be made, however, that publishing the names of the abortionist may be an effective deterrent to abortion. The bill’s opposition claims that it will bring violence to abortionists, but we suspect the higher likelihood is that abortionist will be shamed out of doing abortions. Most people in the medical field are proud of what they do and would be happy for the free publicity to aid their practice. So if the abortionist has some reason for not wanting people to know about his actions, perhaps they need to reconsider a different line of work.