As in any medical or surgical procedure, the woman who is considering having an abortion has specific medical rights which should NEVER be given away or signed away. Abortion procedures can fail or have complications associated with them, including serious permanent injury and death. If you have not kept all your legal medical rights intact, you may have no future recourse for claims should any complication occur.
BE A WELL-PREPARED PATIENT: KNOW ALL YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS BEFORE YOU HAVE AN ABORTION
1. The choice to have an abortion is yours and no one else's. It is illegal for anyone to attempt to force you to have surgery or any medical procedure against your will -- regardless of your age, your marital status or any other life circumstance.
2. You have a right to your legal rights! An abortion clinic may ask you to waive your legal rights by asking you to sign a statement that you will not hold the clinic or the medical personnel involved liable if you are injured or killed during the abortion procedure. No competent attorney would ever ask you to sign away these rights! There's a reason for that: physicians and clinics and each of the personnel who work inside an abortion clinic are legally liable and should have insurance to cover such eventualities. If something happens to you during the procedure, they are the responsible medical personnel and should be held accountable, just as in any other medical or surgical situation.
3. You have the right to have your abortion performed by a properly licensed physician.
4. You have the right to know all the following about that physician:
*Has he/she ever had a medical license suspended? *Does this physician have a history of claims for medical malpractice? *Does this physician have medical malpractice insurance in case you are injured or killed during the procedure?
5. If you should be injured during the abortion, you have the right to insist on being transferred immediately for proper emergency medical care.*
6. You have the right to request that your physician sign a "physician information form" prior to performing your abortion procedure. This form allows the physician to verify his malpractice insurance information and to commit to a prompt transfer by ambulance to an emergency medical facility or trauma center in the event you are injured during the abortion.
To obtain a free copy of this Pre-Abortion Physicians Information form, please contact A CENTER FOR WOMEN at (407) 628-5433
*The following injuries can occur during the abortion procedure. Most post-abortive clients report that these risks were never mentioned to them. If you are being carefully counseled about your medical rights and being responsibly educated prior to the abortion, you will be advised of these risks:
*Heavy bleeding *Infection *Incomplete Abortion *Allergic reaction to anesthetics or other drugs *Tearing of the cervix *Scarring of the uterine lining *Perforation of the uterus *Damage to internal organs *Death
For more factual information about the very real risks of abortion ,
