Thread by @vickiringer

Until you start explaining all the damage that an abortion ban can mean for the women of SC, you may think an abortion ban just prevents abortion. But no. It’s multi-layered and can impact all aspects of women’s lives. Here’s how:

The bill introduced in the SC House and Senate bans all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, severe fetal diagnosis, and women’s health. Unless a pregnant woman is immediately dying, abortion is illegal.

Here’s how that can show up: If a woman is diagnosed with cancer while pregnant, unless she’s going to die before childbirth, no abortion. If her kidneys are failing, as long as she can get dialysis, no abortion. Doctors will risk everything to save women by providing abortions.

An 11-year-old girl raped by her uncle (true story in SC) will be forced to carry that pregnancy to term. Just because she can get pregnant doesn’t mean she should BE pregnant. That child is traumatized again and again - first by the rape, then by pregnancy, then by childbirth.

This same abortion ban bill includes a requirement that all fertilized eggs must be protected just as living, breathing, born humans. About 50% of fertilized eggs are passed during a period, never implanting in the uterus, yet they’re protected. Before you’re even pregnant.

If a fertilized egg is protected, anything that prevents that egg from implanting in the uterus will be illegal. That includes most obviously IUDs but could include birth control pills that prevent ovulation AND make the uterine wall incompatible with implantation.

I can see some Republican legislators demanding an assembly line inspection of all reproductive age women for removal of IUDs. Nothing is too extreme for them these days.

If eggs are protected, in vitro fertilization or IVF will be impossible if not illegal. Doctors will be required to preserve all eggs indefinitely. As one doctor testified, there isn’t a freezer large enough for that. If power goes out, will doctors face murder charges?

Until you start talking about IVF, you don’t realize how many friends and family have had to rely on IVF to have children. It’s common and widespread. Someone you know and love is here today because of IVF. They WANT babies and legislators want to ban it.

If legislators pass this extreme bill - and believe me, Republicans are poised to do it - women who obtain abortions and doctors (or anyone else) who provide abortions may be charged with capital murder punishable by the death penalty. This punishment is written into this bill.

Consider what pregnancy and childbirth are like already for women in SC. It’s the worst state in the nation to have a baby according to a recent research report. SC has the 8th highest maternal mortality rate in the nation. Women die because of pregnancy. Every. Single. Day.

Black women die because of pregnancy and childbirth at four times the rate of white women. Women lack adequate health care in this state. 13 counties have no OB/GYN. Lawmakers refuse to expand Medicaid , resulting in no health coverage for 300,000 people in our state.

Rural hospitals have closed. Uninsured people have to go to an ER for any health care - something we all pay for, by the way. Expanding Medicaid creates new jobs in SC, ensures a healthier workforce, healthier pregnancies and healthier babies.