Playing Politics with the Doctor–Patient Relationship

Abstract

A bill in the Arizona legislature gives physicians the right to withhold information about a fetus's health if they believe it might influence a woman to have an abortion. More than other recent barriers to abortion, the bill undermines the doctor–patient relationship. TO THE EDITOR: Since becoming an abortion provider in 1991, I have watched as barriers to abortion have been erected by legislatures around the country. Many laws have undermined the doctor–patient relationship — mandating that doctors say things to patients that are blatantly untrue, requiring that specific tests be performed whether the doctor thinks they are necessary or not, and requiring waiting periods regardless of whether the woman and her doctor think she is confident in her decision.1 Arizona Senate Bill 1359, however, threatens to undercut the doctor–patient relationship most of all. This bill gives a doctor the right to . . .