They are already obliged to explain the procedure, its risks, and its alternatives. When they encounter a woman who seems unsure of her decision or its implications, or who is being coerced, they are obliged not to proceed. It's clear their goal is not to better inform women but to intimidate and manipulate them into not having an abortion. Some people claim that it is reasonable to ask women who seek abortion services to wait 24 or 48 hours to reconsider their decision. Such claims discount the soul-searching women have already gone through before seeking abortions and the ethical responsibility of physicians not to proceed with any procedure if the patient is unsure.
Many women can spend days or weeks scraping the money together.
Most women have made up their minds by the time they arrive for medical care. More and more, the waiting periods provide opportunities for invasions of family privacy and outright harassment, for one group to go outside the law in an attempt to enforce their own religious beliefs. As we learned all too well before Roe v. Wade , a women who is determined to end an unwanted pregnancy but cannot get a safe legal abortion is very likely to get an unsafe one, at great risk to her health, even her life. Rather than denying this reality, the religious community calls on all Americans to join us in creating a just and compassionate society in which women have real options, and every child is truly welcomed. As we strive toward these goals, we also trust women to make moral decisions, to do what is right for themselves and their own families, based on their own religious or spiritual understandings, without government interference.