Since the implementation of sonogram laws in the state of Texas two years ago, Texas clinics have performed 10 percent to 15 percent fewer abortions. Researchers at Ibis Reproductive Health, the University of Texas, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham conducted a study aimed at “improv[ing] women’s reproductive autonomy,” which shows a reduction in abortions since the state enacted strict requirements for women seeking abortions.

The study claims that abortions are reduced because of economic hurdles, not because women changed their minds after seeing sonograms of their unborn children and discussing abortion with their doctors. LifeSiteNews reported, “Researchers actually credit the obstacles with the reduction in abortion and say it isn’t related to women changing their minds, but just to the difficulties they face in obtaining an abortion.”

But such a conclusion supposes that a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and an ultrasound are onerous requirements to obtain elective surgery. LifeSiteNews observed, “Rarely, if ever, does anyone have same-day surgery in this nation unless its emergency surgery.”

Those opposed to the laws pertaining to abortion in Texas begrudge the average wait after seeing a doctor until the abortion, a wait that averages 3.7 days.

Dr. Daniel Grossman, one of the researchers in the study, noted, “Our findings so far indicate these regulations do not positively impact women’s decision-making and, in fact, are burdensome for women. There has been an overall decline nationally in abortions. But this appears to be more pronounced.”

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