07-14-2016, 08:14 PM
Vox has an interesting tidbit on Pence:
This is just usual pro-life shenanigans where posturing (a fertilized egg = human being; therefore, they should have funerals) is taken to its (il)logical extreme. Here in MN, the pro-life folks pushed through a law some years ago that all miscarriage and/or abortion tissue received in a hospital or clinic must be sent to a funeral home for "cremation". Some pro-life folks said this was "just common sense", and no one was willing to take these folks on, so it passed.
In reality, most spontaneous miscarriages (as well as elective abortions) usually occur in early pregnancy, so what you usually receive is a pint-sized container of blood and uterine lining, with or without a speck of fetal tissue. But the law is the law, so these containers get a special label to separate them from all the other specimens, and these numerous little buckets of blood get sent to the funeral home so they can incinerate them there, instead of at the hospital, where all the other tissue specimens are incinerated.
I've never seen anyone add up what this adds to medical costs, but I'm sure it is a not-inconsiderable expense. But who cares? Those sorts of medical expenses are no object when it comes to placating the anti-abortion lobby.
...this year he signed an anti-abortion bill that even some pro-life Republicans thought was too extreme...
The wording of the burial provision meant that technically, even if a woman had a miscarriage at eight weeks of pregnancy at home, she would have to keep the blood and tissue, take it to a hospital, and have it buried or cremated by a funeral home.
And since about half of miscarriages happen shortly after a fertilized egg is implanted, and occur at roughly the same time a woman would expect her period, many women could be having a miscarriage and not even know it — and thus, technically be violating the law if they didn’t cremate or bury the resulting tissue.
Women who opposed the law started a Facebook group called "Periods for Pence" and started calling Pence’s office in droves to tell him about their periods in graphic detail...
This is just usual pro-life shenanigans where posturing (a fertilized egg = human being; therefore, they should have funerals) is taken to its (il)logical extreme. Here in MN, the pro-life folks pushed through a law some years ago that all miscarriage and/or abortion tissue received in a hospital or clinic must be sent to a funeral home for "cremation". Some pro-life folks said this was "just common sense", and no one was willing to take these folks on, so it passed.
In reality, most spontaneous miscarriages (as well as elective abortions) usually occur in early pregnancy, so what you usually receive is a pint-sized container of blood and uterine lining, with or without a speck of fetal tissue. But the law is the law, so these containers get a special label to separate them from all the other specimens, and these numerous little buckets of blood get sent to the funeral home so they can incinerate them there, instead of at the hospital, where all the other tissue specimens are incinerated.
I've never seen anyone add up what this adds to medical costs, but I'm sure it is a not-inconsiderable expense. But who cares? Those sorts of medical expenses are no object when it comes to placating the anti-abortion lobby.