Alabama Republican Lawmaker Mary Sue McClurkin is pushing forward new legislation that would place more restrictions on abortion clinics in her state. What is slightly different about McClurkin’s approach is that she believes the measure is needed because abortion is a major surgery performed on a major organ.
Specifically, McClurkin says that abortion removes the “largest organ” of a woman’s body. There are plenty of states that have passed restrictions on abortion clinics and how abortions can be carried out in the past few years. The argument is usually that the abortion is the taking of a human life.
Even those who are fundamentally opposed to abortion tend to say that there are times when the surgery should be performed. In general those times tend to look out for the health of the mother, but not because the surgery is akin to have your spleen removed.
Mary Sue McClurkin appears to be claiming that the surgery shouldn’t be performed because women don’t understand how dangerous it is. The Huffingtonpost reported that McClurkin explained her views on the issue saying:
“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”
Jezebel.com reports that the bill puts in place restrictions such as forcing the doctor performing the abortion to have hospital admitting privileges. Gaining admitting privileges is completely up to the hospital administrator. Should that administrator oppose abortion, they will most likely not grant that doctor those privileges.
What the bill does do, is undercut one of the most often used arguments by anti-abortion advocates. Claims that you are taking a human life seem to have more resonance than claims that you are removing an organ.
Do you think Mary Sue McClurkin is helping or hindering the anti-abortion agenda?
