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On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on SB 8, the Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks and effectively rescinded protections from Roe vs. Wade in the state.
The Republican Party has carefully avoided discussing the consequences of the ban, which contains no exceptions for rape or incest, apparently because it views her as a political loser. But in Thursday’s hearing, members of the Republican Chamber called a witness ready to defend the law, Dr. Ingrid Skop, a member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists based in Texas.
To speak in favor of the law is to defend the provisions obliging certain survivors of sexual assault and incest to carry fetuses to term. As committee members noted, the official position of recent Republican Presidents from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump was to call for a ban on abortion. except in cases of incest, rape and danger to the mother’s life. However, it is not SB 8.
You might think that as a Republican witness, Skop would oppose Texas provisions requiring survivors of assault to carry fetuses to term, or at least avoid discussing the matter as so many supporters of the law are trying to. do it. Instead, Skop repeated the Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s ridiculous position that six weeks – or when most women may find out they are pregnant – was enough time for a sexual assault survivor to have an abortion. No one in the courtroom was more disgusted by these remarks than Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shattered Skop’s “shame” position at the most powerful moment of the entire hearing.
First of all, it’s important to get a feel for the trade that led to Skop’s response. Specifically, under intense questioning by Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, Skop declined to say whether she would like her own daughter to have access to an abortion after six weeks in the horrific event where she was raped.
This exchange went like this:
Raja Krishnamoorthi: Now my wife and I have a daughter, Dr Skop, and one of our biggest fears in life is that she will be sexually assaulted or raped. Now I understand you have a daughter, don’t you?
Ingrid Skop: I have a daughter.
Krishnamoorthi: If, God forbid, your daughter was raped, do you think your daughter should be forced to deliver the fetus to term?
Cut: In this case — and I just want to put on the record that the stories I’ve heard from women today about their abortions make me very sad. I feel for every woman who has gone through this horrible situation and had to make this horrible decision. I work for a world where women never have to make that decision, but I would say that in the case of rape, women usually know they have been raped and a woman can tell if she is pregnant. .
Krishnamoorthi: I’m just asking you a simple question, Dr Skop, in the event that even after a detectable fetal heartbeat, under SB 8, your daughter has been raped, would you believe that she should be forced to carry the baby to term as does SB 8 require?
Cut: SB 8 gives a woman who knows she has been raped enough time to determine that she is pregnant.
You can watch the video of the full swap here:
After Skop’s escape on the specific personal issue, Krishnamoorthi asked if there should be an exception for rape and incest in Texas law when there is none and when Abbott recently said that he would oppose such a change in the law. Skop was more specific in his response, expanding on his position that two weeks after a missed period is enough for a sexual assault victim to have an abortion. Here is that exchange:
Krishnamoorthi: You don’t want to answer the question, you are evasive and it is the hypocrisy that characterizes people like you having an opinion on how you would treat your own daughter, but obliging other girls, sisters and women in the community. the state of Texas for a totally different experience. In 2019, the Texas Department of Safety reported more than 14,000 rapes in the state of Texas, and most experts unfortunately believe that the actual number of rapes far exceeds the number of reported rapes. Now, ma’am, do you think that after detecting a fetal heartbeat, there should be an exception for rape and incest?
Cut: I think there is enough time in this law for a woman who has been raped to find out that she is pregnant, and if she wants to terminate the pregnancy, I think she has time to do so. .
Again, this was one of the more outrageous pieces of SB 8 misinformation offered by the mostly silent Republican defenders of the law and here it was getting an audience on a national stage in the House of Representatives. Ocasio-Cortez was unhappy to say the least. The New York congresswoman explained in great detail – and using her own life as an example – why Skop’s statement was so anti-science, flawed, and damaging to survivors of sexual assault.
Here’s a full snippet of that answer:
I have to correct and respond to a claim that was made not too long ago, this idea, this myth that, first of all, this SB 8 law gives a victim of abuse enough time to ask abortion care. Because once again we are in a room of lawmakers trying to legislate on reproductive systems they know nothing about. Six weeks pregnant — and it’s a shame that this education has to take place, because this conversation shouldn’t even be happening in a legislative body — a six-week pregnancy is two weeks behind her period. When you are violated, you don’t always know what happened to you. And I speak of it as a survivor. You are so in shock.
And by the way, people who commit abuse and victims and survivors of sexual assault are massively assaulted by someone they know. And this myth that it’s a person hiding on a street or in a parking lot waiting to sexually assault you, this myth only benefits abusers in power who want you to think that’s the way it is. happens. He’s your friend, he’s a friend, he’s a boss, he’s a legislator. You are so in shock that what happened to you sometimes takes years to realize what really happened. So this idea that victims know within two weeks that they might be late for their period? I am a male-15. I weigh 115 pounds, you look at me weird, I’m two weeks late for my period. And are you waiting for me to know I’m pregnant? Or the stress of a sexual assault. You are two weeks late for your period, whether you are pregnant or not.
Unbelievable. Amazing that the Republican side is calling such an irresponsible and hurtful witness to survivors across this country. Frankly. [Y]our constituents [deserve] excuses.
And here’s the full response from Ocasio-Cortez:
Republican representatives on the committee spent much of the remainder of the audience trying to defend Skop and denounce the Krishnamoorthi issue and Ocasio-Cortez’s clarifying factual statements as outrageous personal attacks. Notably, none have actively tried to repeat and validate Skop’s claims that six weeks are enough for a sexual assault survivor to realize she is pregnant and have an abortion. While Skop at least had the decency to try to defend the law on its merits, once again Republican lawmakers seemed aware of the shame and harmfulness of SB 8 in practice and that it is best to avoid address the very substance of the law in favor of distracting partisan attacks.
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