The State Legislator Will See You Now

Dr. Leah Torres, an OB-GYN who practices in Utah, has rules for how she talks about abortion with her patients. Not rules she’s come up with herself. Rules state legislators have made for her, in an effort to protect women’s rights to informed consent, specifically for those who are getting abortions. No other medical procedure she performs is regulated quite like this – and these regulations apply not just in Utah, but around the country, thanks to Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 Supreme Court case that kicked off a slow motion information war about abortion.

 

When Dr. Torres met this year with a local legislator about his plans to expand the informed consent process again, she went in ready to fight. And she was recording. This week, she takes us inside the room as she debates what makes consent "informed" in the first place. WNYC's Mary Harris reports.