In an excellent summary of the insane debate going on in the South Carolina Senate over H 3114, the bill that would ban abortion at twenty weeks, we have the cretins explaining science and morality. Lee Bright continues to tear his little heart out over the thought that 20-week fetuses are feeling pain. No doubt he spends many nights lying awake thinking about those same fetuses being denied the right to experience sexual pleasure in the womb. Danny Verdin, another example of imaginations gone wild, can't get past the pain a fetus must be going through during an abortion.
Jeez guys, you must have been a riot in your high school biology classes. Should we really have men who are so prone to hysteria that they readily distort facts be making legislative decisions about... well, anything?
And while they relate to a fetus as though it is a cute little kitty, they have absolutely no concept of pain in reality. The pain of a woman whose pregnancy has gone horribly wrong. The pain of carrying a fetus who has severe abnormalities to term, and then giving birth to an infant who also will THEN live in pain until death. The pain of a woman being unable to care for herself or other family members because she is being forced to carry a life that it has been determined will require the draining of resources, emotional and financial. The tragedy of forcing life when maybe God has created a system wherein some pregnancies fail so that others can flower.
False science and hysteria rule the day in Columbia.
But we have some fearless souls on the other side who are attempting to bring reason and proper analysis to this fascist enterprise.
Senator Joel Lourie sums it up:
“We’re a bunch of men sitting up here trying to tell a woman whether it’s right or not to terminate a pregnancy at 20 versus 24 weeks. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves that we’re going to impose our own value system and interfere with the relationship between a woman, her physician, her spiritual adviser and her family.”
We're not even talking about the fact that that infinitesimal percentage of doctors who have testified as "experts" in favor of this bill have had center stage against professional organizations like the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. We've had testimony by people who have said they "just know" a fetus at twenty week feels pain. Proud to be a member of such an august legislative body that would consider that "evidence."
But then there's God. The legislators themselves have toned down the religious rhetoric, substituting it with false science claims so that they can pretend they are keeping church and state separate. But there has been more than enough religious fervor that has crept in via "witnesses."
So that the argument is not really whether a woman should be allowed to decide for herself about terminating a pregnancy. It is really about the fact that because some women of faith chose to have the baby, all women should be prevented from having a choice. It is because small-minded hypocrites like Lee Bright want to be heralded by the church as the man that saved "unborn babies" from being "killed" while defending abusers rights to carry guns. It is about misogynists like Danny Verdin telling us that allowing exceptions to a 20-week abortion law for rape and incest would be encouraging women to lie.
Basically, it is the ugliest of motives, control of women, combined with voyeurism and government surveillance, that gives continued voice to these abortion bills.
This twenty week abortion ban, that in a world ruled by reason and true concern would have been laughed out of any governing body, will come for a Senate vote soon. The criminal domestic violence bill, which would truly save lives, is being held hostage while those same "pro-life" legislators fight about whether abusers should have their guns taken away.
But we can still be heard. We can thank and encourage those Senators who are fighting for women's right to reproductive health and privacy, and we can write and call our own State Senators to tell them in no uncertain terms to vote no to this bill.
Thanks to Brad Hutto and Joel Lourie and others who are fighting to keep the government out of women's private lives.
Go to the Statehouse website to send an email to let each senator know how you feel about this bill.
This is the email I sent to all senators:
I urge you to vote NO on the bill that would prevent women from deciding on whether to have an abortion after twenty weeks. Science has proven that at 20-24 weeks a fetus has not developed the ability to experience pain.
Also, this is an extremely rare procedure (estimated 30 per year) which occurs in the course of wanted pregnancies where fetal abnormalities are detected.
This should be a decision between a woman and a medical professional. Government intrusion in such a private and personal matter is unacceptable.
Vote NO on H 3114.
I hope you will all join me in making your voice heard.
Thank you, Agnes. Well done!
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