Some women take time to reach their decision and others know immediately. But once they know, they know.

Indecision doesn’t lead a woman to put her feet in stirrups, lay back and hope the person holding the steel is well-trained and trustworthy. No one who is unsure of a medical decision would consider a filthy man with filthy equipment in a filthy room a viable option.

Even though women know their bodies and their minds, many states require doctors to explain pregnancy to a woman, as if she were an impulsive child. No woman in the history of women has ever said, “Oh doctor, thank you so much for explaining. I didn’t realize what pregnancy meant.”

These and other regulations are not about patient safety or informed consent. They are intended to make the procedure more expensive or harder to access.