Yesterday, the SC Senate Medical Affairs Subcommittee met to hear testimony on H.3245, a bill that the House passed last month that would require a woman to wait 24 hours after receiving an ultrasound in order to have an abortion. The hearing room was packed, with opponents of the bill greatly outnumbering those in support. The subcommittee took no vote, and likely will meet again within the next two weeks to do so.
I was among those who spoke against the bill. Here is a transcript of my testimony.
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I am Becci Robbins, and I am the communications director for the SC Progressive Network, a job I have held since the Network was created in 1995. We are a diverse coalition of 61 organizations and hundreds of individual members from across the state.
Our organization works to promote and defend policies of tolerance and inclusiveness that protect individuals against discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, disability, age or other categorizations used to diminish one group for the benefit of others.
Our coalition includes a broad range of people working on a variety of issues. Our members don’t always agree on everything, but we respect each other’s differences and know that our diversity is our strength. This perspective has enriched our organization and has helped us reach beyond our differences to work together for the common good.
That ability to work cooperatively and constructively — respecting the broad range of human experience and values — is what I would wish for the South Carolina legislature. Yours is an exclusive club made up primarily of men, most of them white, most of them well-educated and well-off. That narrow perspective does not always serve the citizens of South Carolina, especially those who do not enjoy the same privilege as the legislators who represent them.
That lack of perspective has been evident over the years as the legislature has worked to chip away at reproductive rights. The members of this nearly all-male body has no idea what it feels like to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. For many, the issue of abortion is a theoretical construct, an idea to be debated and used as a political tool.
In January, I watched the House debate this bill. As a grown woman, I was insulted that lawmakers felt entitled to making decisions about the most intimate details of my health and welfare. The insinuation at the core of the 24-hour waiting period is that women are not to be trusted, are not capable of making responsible choices for themselves and their families.
To those lawmakers who oppose abortion on religious grounds, I would not try to change their minds or challenge their sincerity. It is not my place. Neither is it their place to impose their religious and moral values on me and other women.
This bill is an attempt to do just that. While it is ostensibly about making a woman wait 24 hours before terminating her pregnancy, the truth is that this bill is one more step in a well-orchestrated and incremental approach to limiting women’s access to the full range of reproductive services.
The 24-hour mandate has serious implications. For some women, especially for working women and those living in rural areas, this bill poses an undue burden. For women with children, it means finding child care for two days instead of one. For women in college, it means missing two days of classes, instead of one. For women who don’t live in one of the three cities with clinics that provide pregnancy terminations, it means two days of driving long distances, not just one. Please don’t make what is already a difficult process even more difficult for these women.
I am here today to speak for the women who have no power, no voice, women who more often than not find themselves on the losing end of political gamesmanship. I am here because I know of no woman who has ever taken the decision to end her pregancy lightly. I am here because I know of no woman who has not thought long and hard before making this most difficult choice for herself and her family.
Finally, I would urge you and your colleagues to spend your time addressing the critical issues facing the citizens of this state: poor education, lack of health care, disappearing jobs and a failing economy. Surely those issues should take precedence over this bill and others seeking to control the lives of women in South Carolina.
Thank you for your time.