South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster Needs To Keep His Hands off My Uterus

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed a bill into law that would make it nearly impossible to get an abortion. The so-called “fetal heartbeat bill” basically prohibits an abortion past the 6-week mark, with exceptions being made for those who become pregnant through incest, rape, or who would find their lives in danger if they keep the pregnancy. And the law is a dangerous and terrible load of BS. Planned Parenthood is already suing.

Most pregnant people don’t even know they’re pregnant at 6 weeks, which is why the law effectively outlaws abortion. Most often they think they missed their period due to stress or other conditions. Sometimes their period is irregular and doesn’t come for months at a time. And sometimes life gets away from them and before they know it, it’s been weeks since they’ve had their period.

The bill signed by McMaster gets even more infuriating when you take into consideration that most practitioners or clinics wait until the pregnant person is about 5 to 6 weeks pregnant to perform the first pregnancy ultrasound. Why? Because it’s the ideal time for the machine to be able to detect the heartbeat or the gestational sac the pea-sized pregnancy is in.

Then there’s the rape and incest of it all. With this law, the doctor who performs an abortion on a victim must report the assault to the authorities and the contact information of the pregnant person. That is a major violation of privacy and doesn’t take into consideration that the person listed as the pregnant person’s guardian might be the perpetrator. Also physical, mental, and emotional harm could come to the pregnant person via the assailant or other parties if they find out that the person in question had an abortion and had it reported.

It’s an oversight that makes me, and plenty of people online, wonder if they even really care for the people who get pregnant. (Spoiler alert: unlikely! Anti-abortion laws are about controlling the bodies of people who are pregnant. These same folks vote time and time again against aid for children). McMaster doesn’t care about the safety of the pregnant person, how an abortion can change their life for the better, or the dangers that come with keeping a pregnancy. All he cares about is “protecting innocent life.” And to that I call BS as well.

If conservatives really were “pro-life” as they claim to be, which they aren’t, they would care for the children after they are born. If they cared they would invest money and time to finding good foster locations for children that have no one. If they cared they would invest money into early education programs that help the disenfranchised. If they cared they wouldn’t argue so much against food stamps for families who need it to feed their children. And if they cared they would help mothers have the resources to raise the children forced upon them.

When conservatives start doing all that, and then some, can they actually claim that they’re “pro-life.” For now, I’m going to call it like I see it: a bunch of nosy men who have no business being near my uterus or any other person’s, and who only care for unborn children while separating themselves from any other responsibility when said children are born. These people and their terrible policies should never have jurisdiction over anyone’s bodies or choices.

(image: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—