By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Domineering Republican men in the legislature who are making decisions about women’s bodies must be just plain arrogant. If they harbor any notion they are helping poor and young women in South Carolina by curbing abortions, they’re smoking the weed that the state Senate has been talking about this week.
If our state legislators keep pushing soulless abortion bills to score political points with their voting base, they’re sentencing too many young women to pain, suffering and horror. Why? Because legislating against abortions won’t make them go away. They’ll just cockroach them into the shadows.
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Back to it: Men of the legislature should get out of the way and let South Carolina’s women use their own brains to figure out what’s best for their bodies. Those who want to give birth will and may consider adoption. Those who need to abort for their own health and safety or if they know they can’t offer a nurturing home to a child should be able to take advantage of options offered by modern medicine and science.
On Wednesday, three male Republican state senators on the Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee – Richard Cash of Anderson, Tom Corbin of Travelers Rest and Billy Garrett of Greenwood – gave subcommittee approval to two abortion bills with harrowing consequences. Democrats Margie Bright Matthews of Walterboro and Marlon Kimpson of Charleston voted against the measures.
One bill, S. 988, would define the beginning of life at fertilization and, according to the Associated Press, hold that “any doctor who performs an abortion after that point could face similar charges to murder.” The measure, sponsored by Cash, is considered an abortion ban, but would allow birth control and contraception as well as abortions if a mother’s life were in danger or an egg was fertilized outside of the womb. If approved, this “trigger law” would take effect if the U.S. Supreme Court, which is taking a serious look at the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, were to turn abortion rights over to states.
Another proposal, S. 907, calls for doctors to give a written statement that drug-induced abortions could be reversed after one dose of a two-dose drug, which opponents say is medically inaccurate and unproven.
Last year, the General Assembly passed a law banning most abortions by requiring ultrasounds for a “fetal heartbeat” and, if detected, bans abortion except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life. That measure now is on hold pending a constitutional review by a federal court.
Such early movement in this year’s session of anti-abortion legislation is frightening, particularly given the consequences.
“It is scary how extreme our legislators have gotten in their efforts to deny people access to abortion care in South Carolina,” said Ann Warner, CEO of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network in Columbia. “It’s alarming that the Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee chose to even take these bills up, let alone pass them.
“I am appalled that so many legislators are willing to ignore science, common sense and public will in an effort to advance a radical agenda.”
Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said under the “trigger” proposal, any doctor who provided an abortion of somone trying to end a pregnancy could be charged with murder and face the death penalty if the law goes into effect.
“This is no longer a hypothetical threat,” she said. “The legal right to have an abortion is being dismantled right now, before our eyes. … Without the courts to shield us from the most egregious laws — as they did last year with the state’s six-week abortion ban — our fight is no longer only a political one confined to the halls of the Statehouse. We are fighting for our lives.”
“No matter your personal views on abortion, we should all agree that politicians shouldn’t criminalize our private medical decisions or the doctors providing this care. Each person should be able to get quality, affordable health care, no matter who they are, where they live or how much money is in their bank account — without interference from politicians.”
Damn right.
Andy Brack, editor and publisher of Statehouse Report, also is publisher of the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Amen, Andy.
Amen. Good job.
Given the 2011-2020 in-migration stats SC is clearly a country for older folk. This state for old men makes sure SC is no country for young women. If this sticks then the more venal, horrendous stuff; acts you could only see in dystopian movies will be easier than they were before in SC. That is already quite a bit. Wow is all I can say. What I can’t understand is why the young people come or stay for that matter.
Got some good line.
#1 They’ll just cockroach them into the shadows.
#2 ..they’re smoking the weed that the state Senate has been talking about this week.
#3 .. let South Carolina’s women use their own brains to figure out what’s best for their bodies.