SC, another state with a GREAT IDEA....YEESCH!

The South Carolina House passed a bill this week on the issue of women's reproductive rights.

A bill approved in the South Carolina House this week would force women to see a fetal ultrasound before they have abortions.

After three hours of passionate debate, the House voted 91-23 to require women to sign a statement swearing they had seen an ultrasound image of their fetus before getting an abortion.

A half-dozen other states offer ultrasound images to abortion patients, legislative staffers said. But those states do not require abortion patients view them.

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And if you had any doubt that this law was about punishing women, and somehow making them “face” their transgression, check this out:

Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, railed against Republicans for opposing his amendment to exempt victims of rape and incest from the required ultrasound viewing.

This logic goes to show that this isn’t about making sure women are informed—it’s about punishing them. So women who were raped shouldn’t have to have their noses rubbed in their pregnancies and be punished any further--that’s just for the “bad” women who wanted to have sex. Ugh.

This is about punishment and shame.

This is about shoving their beliefs in women's faces, in the hopes of guilting them from their decision. Now this as an offer has some reason to it. If the person is wavering, they may want to look. Having the option available...still, it seems like a wedge, even then, to force more pressure and expectation on pregnant women. I can see writing the offer into law allows it to become a HARD offer.

What makes things worse is that now the women coming in have to pay for yet another procedure. As someone who, before surgery, needed to have an ultrasound done, it ain't cheap. So it is another hurdle, another cost, for those living on the lower end of the economy. So to force it is suspect. It offers no medical assistance, and frankly in the first trimester their is really nothing to see but a tiny blob.


It is a slow bleed by government, in the hopes it can make the option just painful enough to not be possible, but try and keep their hands reasonablly clean.