Published in the April 20, 2007 Journal
OK, first allow me to list all the required disclaimers:
Abortion is terrible. I abhor it. I would never advise anyone to have one. But I would never advise someone that they are headed for hell because they had one. (If they had had two, or more, that would be a tough call, but still not mine to make.)
I don’t advocate abortion. With very few and very rare exceptions, I don’t think it should be performed at all after 12 weeks. (South Carolina law allows abortion clinics to provide abortion on demand up to 18 weeks.)
That being said, I also believe it has to remain legal. If it were made illegal again, it would not stop abortion, but a lot of women and girls would die as a result of unsafe abortions. (If you think females seeking abortion deserve to die anyway, it’s lucky I don’t get to advise you as to your hell bound chances, either.) Oddly enough, my beliefs on this subject make me downright average as an American.
Given the constitutional right, confirmed by the Supreme Court, that a woman can determine whether to seek abortion, the states are left with the duty to ensure it is a medically safe procedure. I am all for safe.
How does forcing a woman to view an ultrasound of her embryo or fetus enhance her safety? Henry McMaster, our attorney general, has already opined that requiring or forcing a woman to look at anything would be unconstitutional.
And yet, the state GOP leader has cracked his whip, “requiring” the Republican rank and file in the House to lobby state senators to oppose any compromise in the bill that would not require (force) women to see an ultrasound image of their embryo or fetus.
How can forcing anyone to view anything be legal?
I get it. I get where these guys are coming from. Like me, they feel abortion is a terrible thing, so they want to enact laws that reduce the incidence of this elective, legal, medical procedure.
But why single out abortion?
All surgeries involve serious risk. Because a patient technically doesn’t need it, elective surgery is especially risky. So why hasn’t the Legislature taken steps to protect the public health against the dangers of these unnecessary surgeries?
Vasectomies and tubal ligations are almost entirely elective. Voluntary sterilization ranks a close second behind “the pill” in terms of contraceptive use in the United States (but way more effective). If men were required to view even grainy, black-and-white ultrasound images of a vasectomy, the procedure would disappear altogether.
There are all kinds of things that are perfectly legal that many of us find immoral. It’s perfectly legal for a 14-year-old unwed mother in South Carolina to take her newborn home and try to care for that baby. It’s illegal to hire a 14-year-old to be a full time nanny for your newborn, or to leave a 14-year-old in charge of your kids while you go out of town for two weeks. It’s illegal for a 14 year old to adopt a baby in this state. But our lawmakers trust the safety of a newborn infant to his 14 year old child/mother.
Before they leave the maternity ward, why don’t we force 14 year old mothers to watch a video of what infants look like in the ER when they are brought in as a result of neglect and abuse?
It would be really hard to force a girl to watch a terrible video like that. Especially if she saw another video seven months previously, one that made her change her mind about terminating the pregnancy. But she was still too scared to tell anyone else that she was pregnant, let alone getting prenatal care or finding a support network that would help her and her baby find a positive alternative in adoption.
Is it moral to harass, traumatize or shock anyone who chooses to do something we find immoral (yet legal)? I don’t need to watch a video of someone watching one of those videos to know that it’s just plain wrong.
McMaster has already said “requiring” would be unconstitutional, so why is the GOP leadership opposing a compromise version of the bill? It’s clearly not designed to pass, just to pander.
This way, the majority in the House can placate the hardened core of their political base, without actually doing anything to reduce the number of abortions in the state.
I applaud the impetus behind this bill, but the impetus has been orphaned by common sense and prevention.
Starting in 5th grade, before most students reach puberty, lawmakers could empower kids in public and private schools with information about, the right to say no to sex. But they must also arm kids with information about, and access to birth control in case they say yes despite all our best efforts to keep them from having sex, even after the Legislature says go for it.
We may find it immoral as parents, but our South Carolina lawmakers have decided it’s OK for our daughters to start having sex in the 9th grade. The age of consent is JUST 14 YEARS OLD. Question: what videos in their showcase does the House suggest 14-year-old girls view before they have perfectly legal sex?
Before they start enacting new and unconstitutional laws to reduce the incidence of abortion, our legislators should force themselves to fix some of the laws already on the books.
Before they vote, I’d like to require them to watch a video about a bunch of guys who have their heads stuck in the oddest places. Maybe then they would rethink the wisdom of forcing anyone to do anything.
