Scott Walker Wanted To Allow Doctors To Victimize Pregnant Women By Lying To Them

It’s been amply established over the last five-plus years that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is sleazy, even by the standards of Republican governors. However, Scott Keyes of ThinkProgress recently discovered just how sleazy Walker is. While serving in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Walker wanted to make it legal for doctors to victimize pregnant women by lying to them about how their pregnancies were going along–all in the name of keeping them from considering an abortion.

Scott Walker (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
Scott Walker (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

As most of us know, doctors are ethically bound to tell their patients if they discover a potentially serious developmental disability in a fetus. However, Wisconsin OB/GYNs are legally bound to disclose this information as well. However, Keyes discovered that Walker made at least two attempts to create a loophole in this obligation while serving in the state assembly from 1993 to 2002.

In September 1997, Walker joined 34 other lawmakers in introducing a bill that would have barred suits against OB/GYNs who withheld information about a fetal disability while abortion was still a realistic option. Under Wisconsin law of the time, if a doctor sat on this information, the child’s parents could sue for his or her medical expenses–known in Wisconsin as a “wrongful birth action.” A child could also sue for damages resulting from being born with a disability–known as a “wrongful life action.” However, the bill Walker supported would have closed off these suits in the event that “a woman did not undergo an abortion that she would have undergone” had she known about this disability. Cliff Notes version: it would have given pro-life OB/GYNs carte blanche to violate their oath by withholding critical information from their patients.

Fortunately, this bill died in the assembly’s Judiciary Committee in 1998. Undaunted, Walker tried to victimize Wisconsin’s women again by lending his support to an identical bill in April 2001. This bill actually passed the assembly’s Family Life Committee in 2002, but died later that year without ever coming up for a floor vote.

Any decent person would know that it is unacceptable for a doctor to put his or her political beliefs ahead of the welfare of his or her patients. Yet, Walker is on record as wanting to allow doctors to do just that. I walked away from the pro-life movement specifically because ugly and nakedly aggressive tactics like this caused the scales to fall from my eyes.

Many of my longtime readers both here and at Daily Kos know that during my college days, I was deceived into joining a horribly abusive charismatic campus ministry that found it acceptable to deceive people into joining them. They seemed to think that all was fair in getting people saved. Even considering that experience, this behavior from Walker is absolutely staggering. Is he so opposed to abortion that he is willing to victimize women by letting their OB/GYNs lie to them? Does he believe that all is fair in the name of preventing abortions? Based on his name appearing as a sponsor on these two bills, I can only conclude that the answer to both questions is yes.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.