A Central Pennsylvania woman who bought an abortion-inducing drug from an online retailer in Europe was sentenced to 12 to 18 months in prison on Friday.
When Jennifer Whalen's daughter told her she was pregnant in 2012, Whalen looked for an abortion clinic but couldn't find one in the county where they lived. Whalen's daughter didn't have insurance and couldn't afford to have the procedure in a hospital.
Whalen, who worked as a nursing home aide, “did not obtain a prescription because she did not know she needed one,” according to the Press Enterprise in Pennsylvania. When her daughter had abdominal cramps and bleeding several weeks later, Whalen took her to the hospital and was later charged with unlawfully dispensing medicine, endangering the welfare of a child, simple assault, and medical consultation, which is a third degree felony.
She pleaded guilty to buying the drugs and giving them to her daughter, Reuters reported on Saturday. While Whalen was charged because she bought the abortion drug and gave it to her daughter, abortions are legal in Pennsylvania.
Though there isn't a law against a doctor providing an abortion, they're becoming more difficult to obtain safely and affordably.
NARAL Pro-Choice America has given every state a grade on the restrictiveness of its reproductive choice–related laws. Pennsylvania got an F. So to be clear, abortion is legal in Pennsylvania, but it can be pretty hard for many women to have one.
A law passed in 2013 in Pennsylvania made it illegal for insurance to cover abortion. In February, RH Reality Check reported that nearly one-third of abortion clinics in the state have closed since 2012. Thanks to recent restrictive laws, facilities owned or operated by the state cannot provide abortions unless they are necessary to save a woman's life or in the case of rape or incest. Any doctor or nurse can refuse to provide abortions. Anyone under the age of 18 seeking an abortion must go to the clinic twice—once for a pregnancy test and once for counseling—before doctors can perform the procedure. This means that a woman will need to make someone she'll need to make three trips in total.
In the case of Whalen's daughter, the nearest clinic that provides the service was about 74 miles from their house.
“Decreasing access to abortion does not decrease rate of abortion. It drives up illegal methods and potentially unsafe methods,” said Samantha Gordon, director of public affairs for NARAL Pro-Choice America.
“When women do not have access to abortion care, whether it's logistically or the funds, they will go to desperate measures.”
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/
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