SC state senator demands compensation for forced birth

We love South Carolina state senator Mia McLeod.

Earlier this month, she filed a bill that peels away all the pretense behind the state’s attempts to ban abortion after six weeks (earlier than most people know they’re pregnant). SB928, the South Carolina Pro Birth Accountability Act, says that if the state is going to force people to give birth against their will, it should have to cover the costs of having and raising the resulting children.

That. Is. Badass.

We love her argument that since South Carolina is an entity that isn’t physically capable of giving birth, forcing people who otherwise could have chosen to end their pregnancies to carry to term is basically forcing them to be gestational surrogates for the state.

We love how she points out that surrogates basically rent out their uterus, and that South Carolina can’t constitutionally use a citizen’s rental property without fair compensation.

And so we love, love, love her conclusion that it’s also unconstitutional to force someone to let South Carolina use their uterus to carry a pregnancy to term without fair compensation.

YES! THIS!

We know this bill has approximately zero chance of passing the Republican-dominated state legislature. Still, it’s a big step in calling out all the so-called pro-lifers who are passionately concerned about the well-being of fetuses, but don’t care what happens to them once they’re born.

If you’re in South Carolina or any other state trying to block abortion access, there are two things you need to know: First, abortion is still legal in all 50 states. And second, something can be legal but hard to access. If that’s making you consider self-managed abortion, you can find accurate, up-to-date information at abortionpillinfo.org.