While the practice of abortion is wide open and available on a walk-in basis in Washington, DC, the District's government is considering a waiting period to decorate one's body.
While tattoo artists are complaining that a proposed ordinance will damage their "walk-in" business, a spokeswoman for the DC Health Department says a 24-hour waiting period for tattoos or body piercings is necessary so people are in the "right frame of mind" and don't regret their decision afterwards. The suggested waiting period is found among 65 pages of proposed regulations for tattoo parlors handed down recently by that department.
Brad Mattes of Life Issues Institute sees a bit of hypocrisy in the proposed ordinance for the nation's capital.
"One of the main things is they don't want people staggering into these places drunk or high on drugs or whatever and regretting their decision," he explains. "But then I thought, Well, why not have a 24-hour waiting period for abortion? – because the ramifications of that decision are so much more severe than a tattoo or a piercing."
As the pro-life spokesman points out, a woman or young girl in the capital city can get an abortion at any time during the pregnancy and for any reason. "And the tragic statistics of the District show that 41 percent of all pregnancies there end in abortion, which is twice the national average," he laments.
Tattoo parlors object to the waiting period because they fear it will hurt business. As Mattes notes, that's what happens to abortion facilities as well.
"When we say women need a 24-hour waiting period, they say, Well, this is going to be a hardship on women – and that's not the case at all," he tells OneNewsNow. "They're just not going to make as much money if she changes her mind in the meantime."
Mattes says the DC Council should be more interested in protecting the unborn and their mothers than in preventing people from making impulse decisions to get tattoos and piercings.
Contact: Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow
