{"id":2615366,"date":"2026-06-17T18:45:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/op-ed-informed-consent-is-lacking-for-abortion\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:51:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:51:59","slug":"op-ed-informed-consent-is-lacking-for-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/op-ed-informed-consent-is-lacking-for-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: Informed Consent Is Lacking for Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fop-ed-informed-consent-is-lacking-for-abortion%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2615366&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The content discusses the importance of informed consent in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/meme-lords-just-figured-out-how-to-take-back-the-billions-wall-street-made-profiting-off-lockdowns-the-washington-standard\/\" title=\"Meme Lords Just Figured Out How To Take Back The Billions Wall Street Made Profiting Off Lockdowns\">medical procedures<\/a>, especially focusing on medication abortions in the United states. A study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute reveals that many women undergoing abortions report not receiving adequate facts, especially regarding bleeding, pain, and emotional or mental health consequences. The findings highlight that women often experience unexpected severe symptoms and emotional distress, with some wishing they could undo their decisions. These issues are exacerbated by the increasing availability of abortion pills online and through telehealth services, which can diminish meaningful doctor-patient conversations. In response, Kansas legislators passed bills mandating standardized consent forms that clearly inform women of risks, fetal advancement, and alternatives, along with providing legal pathways for women to seek accountability when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-noem-effectively-bans-telemedicine-abortions-restricts-chemical-abortions-in-south-dakota\/\" title=\"Gov. Noem Effectively Bans Telemedicine Abortions, Restricts Chemical Abortions\u00a0In South Dakota\">informed consent laws<\/a> are violated. despite vetoes from the governor, the legislature overrode these vetoes, emphasizing the necessity of proper informed consent. the article underscores that many women are making critical reproductive decisions without sufficient information, and legislative measures in Kansas aim to address these shortcomings.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_3)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Before a patient takes any drug with serious potential consequences, the physician has an obligation to ensure the patient understands what those consequences are. That principle is called informed consent.<\/p>\n<p>It is not optional. It is not just a box to check.<\/p>\n<p>A new study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, published in <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0349065\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PLOS ONE,<\/a> suggests that for a significant number of women obtaining medication abortions in the United States, informed consent is lacking.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers are clear.<\/p>\n<p>More than half of the women surveyed \u2014 52.5 percent \u2014 said they wanted more information about bleeding than they received during the consent process.<\/p>\n<p>Forty-eight percent said the same about pain.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly a third said they were inadequately informed about mental and emotional health consequences.<\/p>\n<p>These are women who went through the process, experienced complications they did not expect, and reported afterward that they had not been given what they needed to make a fully informed decision.<\/p>\n<p>That is an indictment \u2014 not of the women, but of the system.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers noted that bleeding and pain were a \u201cpoint of confusion for many women,\u201d who expected spotting and light cramping and encountered something far more severe.<\/p>\n<p>When a patient does not know whether what is happening to her body is normal or a sign that something has gone wrong, the consent process failed her.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 5 percent reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/feminists-safe-abortion-pill-linked-dangerous-complications-advertised-not-worst-part\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complications<\/a> requiring additional medical treatment, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >including incomplete abortion requiring surgical procedures<\/a> for retained tissue.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-nine percent said they wanted more information about incomplete abortion before taking the pills. More than one in five wanted more information about the possibility of a failed abortion with a continued living fetus.<\/p>\n<p>These are not rare edge cases. They are complications documented in the medical literature, reported by the women who experienced them, at a scale that demands attention.<\/p>\n<p>The emotional findings are equally striking.<\/p>\n<p>The most commonly reported responses included relief, sadness, anxiety, guilt, depression, stress, and grief. Nineteen percent reported happiness. But 17.4 percent reported regret. Fourteen percent reported anger. And 6.3 percent expressed a desire to stop or reverse the abortion.<\/p>\n<p>That last figure: More than one in 20 women who took abortion pills wished they could undo what they had done. That alone tells us something important about the adequacy of the process that preceded their decision.<\/p>\n<p>These findings carry additional weight as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/new-bill-ban-abortion-pill-hits-senate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">abortion pills<\/a> become increasingly available online and through the mail.<\/p>\n<p>When a woman obtains medication abortion through a telehealth visit or an online pharmacy, the opportunity for meaningful informed consent \u2014 a real conversation with a real clinician \u2014 is diminished. In some cases, it is functionally nonexistent.<\/p>\n<p>An estimated 1.126 million abortions were conducted in the United States in 2025. A growing  involved medication rather than surgery. The question of whether women are receiving adequate information before taking these drugs is becoming more urgent, not less.<\/p>\n<p>The Kansas Legislature addressed this problem directly in the 2026 session \u2014 overriding the governor\u2019s veto pen.<\/p>\n<p>House Bill 2729 requires the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to produce standardized consent forms for women seeking an abortion.<\/p>\n<p>The forms must include information on fetal development, risks of the procedure, alternatives available to the woman, and specific information about the risks and side effects of mifepristone.<\/p>\n<p>The bill ensures that every woman in Kansas receives the same baseline of information before making her decision \u2014 not whatever a provider chooses to disclose.<\/p>\n<p>House Bill 2727 gives women who do not receive that information a realistic path to hold providers accountable.<\/p>\n<p>It allows women alleging violations of informed consent law to file suit without first navigating the state\u2019s medical malpractice screening panel \u2014 a process that can be slow, expensive, and discouraging to pursue. A plaintiff may elect to limit recovery to $5,000, but she gets her day in court.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed both bills, calling one an attempt to distribute \u201cfalse medical information\u201d and the other an effort to \u201cintimidate health care providers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Legislature overrode both vetoes by identical margins \u2014 87 to 36 in the House and 31 to 8 in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker Dan Hawkins did not mince words: \u201cThese measures simply reinforce that informed consent should actually mean something, and women deserve to know their options, understand the risks, and have a clear path to seek accountability if those standards are ignored. That shouldn\u2019t be controversial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It shouldn\u2019t be. And the Charlotte Lozier study tells us why it is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>When more than half of women say they were not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/know-shockingly-little-company-distributing-abortion-drugs-new-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">adequately informed<\/a> about bleeding, and nearly half say the same about pain, and one in 20 say they wished they could reverse their decision, the system is not working.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas has now established a standardized base of information every woman must receive \u2014 and created consequences for providers who fail to deliver it.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever one believes about the legality or morality of abortion, there should be no disagreement about this: A woman about to take a drug that may cause severe bleeding, intense pain, incomplete tissue expulsion, or significant emotional distress has a right to know \u2014 in specific, concrete terms, not in the sanitized language of a consent form designed to minimize liability.<\/p>\n<p>The Charlotte Lozier study surveyed 508 women. What they captured is that too many women are making one of the most consequential decisions of their lives without the information they need to make it well.<\/p>\n<p>That is not informed consent.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas, at least, has decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><i><b>The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either d or endorsed by the owners of this website. 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A Charlotte Lozier Institute study in PLOS ONE shows many women lack this understanding before medication abortions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2615367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Abortion-aftermath.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[32868,81345,41139,37535,32276],"class_list":["post-2615366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-abortion-rights","tag-informed-consent","tag-medical-ethics","tag-reproductive-health","tag-womens-rights"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Abortion-aftermath.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615370,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615366\/revisions\/2615370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2615367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}