KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: Seeking Legal Abortion

 
You need to protect your own health and your own legal rights! There are laws in place to protect you.
You have the right to:

1. Insist that your abortion be performed by a licensed physician only
2. To know the medical malpractice history of a physician
3. To know if the doctor has an insurance policy that protects you in case of any injury during the procedure
4. Insist that you be transferred by ambulance to the nearest emergency hospital if you are injured during the procedure
5. Refuse an abortion if someone is trying to force you to have one against your will. No one has the legal right to make you have an abortion.

At any medical clinic, it is normal to sign papers. At an abortion clinic, you will be told to sign some legal papers, but it is important to understand that these papers are intended to protect the physician and the clinic, not you as the patient.
DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING:

• Until you have read and understood everything it says
• Until you have been given a copy to take with you
• That contains blank spaces or missing information that you think is incomplete
• That states you will not sue the clinic or doctor if you are injured in the procedure

Before the Procedure:

• You must be given a written description of the abortion procedure, just like any other surgical procedure, as well as images of an unborn baby the same gestational age as yours.
• The clinic is required by law to provide these materials to you 24 hours in advance of the procedure.
• You should be offered an ultrasound and be allowed to view the ultrasound screen before the abortion.
• Make sure the facility is clean, safe and sanitary.
• Know that the law will protect you in case of injury during the abortion (infection, bleeding, additional treatment, etc.)
• You have the right to change your mind and continue the pregnancy.
• You have the right to surrender your newborn baby to any hospital, police or fire station anonymously with no questions asked.

For more information contact a local family law attorney or click here.