Posts Tagged ‘South Carolina’

As part of the recent rash of anti-choice bills making their way through state legislatures around the country, our neighbor to the south is attempting to pass legislation that would tighten abortion restrictions in the state. The South Carolina bill, currently in two versions, would expand the waiting period for getting an abortion from one hour to one day. The state House’s version would also require two office visits, while the state Senate’s bill forces a woman to download time-stamped information about abortion from a state website before she can have the procedure.

As critics of the bill point out, the proposed statute has its largest effect on women who live in rural areas and those who are poor. It’s much harder for these women to get to clinics once, let alone twice… and the Senate bill supposes that everyone has access to the Internet. Which is not the case, especially for people of lower socioeconomic status. But it seems that some South Carolina legislators don’t mind passing a bill that disproportionately effects some of its citizens.

In fact, one legislator who’s leading the charge for the tighter restrictions said that “this is the most serious issue this Legislature could deal with, if not this year, this session.” Really? Making access to a legal medical procedure much more difficult for poor and rural women is the most important issue facing South Carolina today? Not, say, the budget problems that the state is facing, which are causing a 44% funding cut to colleges and universities in the state? And are also causing K-12 funding to be rolled back to its 1994 level? And are going to make it extraordinarily difficult for the state to keep paying for Medicaid? Those issues don’t rank near the top?

Proponents for the legislation say that it’s intended to make a woman think about her decision before having an abortion. Well, I have news for the legislators of South Carolina. In the two and a half years I spent working in a clinic that provided abortions, I never met a single woman who hadn’t thought about her decision. And to imply that women aren’t thinking “enough” about this procedure (whatever that means) is disingenuous at best and downright offensive and misogynistic at worst. Might I suggest that the “most serious issue” facing South Carolina voters this fall is to elect legislators who won’t ignore real problems to simultaneously pander to a base of support and throw poor and rural women under the bus?