Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) has dealt yet another blow to women’s rights. Recently, DeMint rather underhandedly attached a radical anti-abortion amendment onto an otherwise completely unrelated piece of legislation.
On the heels of passing the so-called Protect Life Act, which prohibits women from buying health insurance plans that cover abortion under the Affordable Care Act and also makes it legal for hospitals to deny abortions to pregnant women with life-threatening conditions, DeMint’s amendment would ban women and their doctors from discussing abortion over the Internet.
Where was this amendment filed, you ask? Well, it was tacked onto a bill related to agriculture, transportation, and housing, of course.
Specifically, the DeMint amendment looks to bar discussions of abortions between a woman and her doctor not just on the internet but also through videoconferencing. This even includes serious health-risk situations, where this kind of communication would be a typically important channel through which to receive medical advice. Under this amendment women and their doctors would, in fact, be required to converse via a separate and segregated “Internet,” if you will—one designated solely for discussing abortion options and care.
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said DeMint is essentially mandating “an abortion-only version of Skype.” She points out that a woman with high-risk pregnancy talking to her doctor through video conferencing would have to somehow switch to a separate communications system if abortion came up at all.
“It is impractical, ridiculous, and, most importantly, bad for women in rural or remote areas who would not be able to discuss the full set of options with their doctor,” Keenan said.
What DeMint, who fancies himself a “small government” conservative, is really attempting to do is to circumvent a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion by essentially making it illegal for doctors to discuss that option with their patients.
Small government, Mr. DeMint?
Call me daft, but inserting Government into the private conversations of a patient and her doctor qualifies as anything but. Ultimately, Mr. DeMint’s insidious move only further exposes his sexist morals via these blatant attacks on every female’s right to choose.