It wouldn’t have been hard for him to learn about this earlier
Right wing politicians act like abortion is some kind of fun party for women, one that is easily discarded as no big deal. They give it no more thought than they would give to a highway bill or naming a post office.
A South Carolina lawmaker on Tuesday had to fight back tears as he explained that an anti-abortion law he’d voted for led to a young woman nearly losing her uterus, and even put her life at risk. Republican State Rep. Neal Collins told the state’s House Judiciary Committee that he’d lost sleep after learning about the case of a 19-year-old woman whose water broke after just 15 weeks of pregnancy. He said that because the fetus had a heartbeat, lawyers advised doctors that they could not remove the fetus, despite that being the recommended medical course of action. The young woman was discharged from hospital. “First, she’s going to pass this fetus in the toilet,” Collins said. “She’s going to have to deal with that on her own.” He added that a doctor told him that there was a “greater than 50 percent chance that she’s going to lose her uterus” and “there’s a 10 percent chance that she will develop sepsis and herself die.” “That weighs on me,” Collins added. “I voted for that bill. These are affecting people.”
Huh. It weighs on him. He voted to protect a 15 week old fetus that cannot survive over the health and possibly the life of the fully formed human in whose body it exists.
The good news is that this lurid, horrifying story finally woke him up and he’s decided not to vote for a total ban with only an exception for the life of the mother. If only they would listen to people who actually understand the ramifications of their intrusion into the most intimate decisions people have to make in their lives they might be spared those sleepless nights when they are confronted with the cruelty they’ve inflicted on people.
BTW: This is the bill they are considering:
South Carolina currently has a six-week ban passed in 2021 that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Republican lawmakers plan a special sessions over the next month to consider even more restrictions.
The bill bans all abortions except when the life of the mother is in danger. It lists a number of different medical emergencies that would fit into the exceptions.
I’m sure it’s very reassuring to know that these yahoos are determining what constitutes a medical emergency. They know best.