Tennessee Passes Bill Requiring Forced Abortion Funerals, For 'Choice'

Oh good, another one of these.

Republicans can't ban abortion, for now at least, but they can try to make it as annoying as possible to have one. And they do!

Tennessee lawmakers have decided to follow in the footsteps of Texas , Ohio, and several other states and pass a bill requiring patients who have surgical abortions to sign a document stating whether they want the byproducts of their abortion cremated or buried, and also requiring clinics to foot the bill for either of these options rather than disposing of them like medical waste, which is what they are. They may as well require funerals for removed tonsils.

It is not clear if anyone will be required to sing "Oh Danny Boy."

Via The Tennessean:  

Under the bill, women who seek surgical abortions would be required to bury or cremate their fetal remains themselves or leave the decision to the abortion clinics.

The clinics would be required to shoulder the cost. But the women would bear the expense instead if they choose to dispose the fetal remains other than where the clinics suggests.

Rep. Tim Rudd, R-Murfreesboro, who sponsored the bill in the House, said Monday night some funeral homes would not charge for fetal burial services. The average cost for burial is $350, and for cremation, $150, he said.
If the women cannot afford the cost, Rudd said there are "charities out there that are set up to help with the burial expenses."

The women must fill out a written form provided by the state Department of Health detailing the method and location for the fetal remains disposal for every aborted fetus. Underage women seeking a surgical abortion would have to obtain consent from one parent before disposing of the fetal remains.

The point of this legislation is twofold — to make having an abortion just a little bit more traumatic for those having one by hammering in the idea of fetal personhood and to make running an abortion clinic more expensive so that fewer people will run abortion clinics.

Because forced birth enthusiasts always have to be very extra about these things, the bill's primary sponsor,Rep. Tim Rudd of Rutherford County, is framing this as an issue of "choice." You know, because those women's libbers love choice, and what better way to stick it to them then to claim that non-optional things are "choices"?

"At least women now have a choice," he said. "When they have an abortion now in the clinic they just get up and leave, they don't know what happens to the aborted fetus." And they probably don't care to. If they did want to know, they would ask. This is the kind of thing that would probably occur to him were he able to get pregnant and have an abortion.

Choices aren't things one is required to do. If all they wanted was to offer a "choice," they would simply make it clear that cremation or burial was an option, not that those were the only options and that they were required to sign a document choosing one. They also would not require underage patients to have the release signed by their parents.

While the other terrible abortion bill proposed by Tennessee Republicans earlier this year — the one allowing rapists to sue their victims in order to force them to bear their children, is still stalled in committee — this bill just needs to be signed by Governor Bill Lee, which it probably will be.

[ The Tennessean ]

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