In May 2019, the Supreme Court held a state law in Indiana requiring the cremation and burial of fetal remains after an abortion. Seeing as this ruling survived a court challenge, anti-abortion advocates pushed other conservative state’s legislatures to pass restrictions, and Rep. Bramble’s S.B. 67 is part of that push. In fact, he is so aligned with the push that his S.B. 67 that was introduced into session on Tuesday virtually mirrors Indiana’s law, all because “those remains should be treated with dignity.”
Rep. Bramble, where are the laws and policies in place for the children who, instead of being aborted, are placed into foster care, become adopted, taken in by a family member or ultimately raised by their birth mother? Where do we codify in our laws and policies that “unaborted” babies should be treated with dignity?
As an adoptee, I find this bill is a waste of precious time and resources for medical providers and facilities. Ultimately, the costs of this will be baked into the hospital fees and make running a clinic more expensive. This means less time to take care of the most vulnerable of our population, pregnant women.
Until we address the state of how we take care of them, I admonish everyone to pay no mind to Bramble’s dog-whistle politics.
Alee Holbrook, St. George