Missouri House representative thinks getting an abortion is like kicking the tires on a new car

Lawmakers in Missouri and Kansas in recent years have tried to push various abortion restriction measures that seem to operate under the premise that women who seek to terminate their pregnancies are like impulse shoppers.

Proposals like those that would require women to look at ultrasound photos of their unborn fetuses before an abortion have popped in and out of both statehouses over the years. Such ideas serve only to reduce women making a difficult, major life decision to the level of someone skipping on their way to the abortion clinic thinking, “Hey, you only live once!”

Chuck Gatschenberger, a St. Charles-area representative in the Missouri House, carried on with this tradition by pushing House Bill 1613, a measure he sponsored that requires a woman to wait 72 hours after consulting with an abortion provider before going ahead with the procedure. The bill also says providers should give women an ultrasound photo of the fetus upon request for no additional charge.

Gatschenberger testified before the House Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities on Tuesday, which was captured on video. In doing so, he sounded every bit as tone deaf about the psychological difficulties that women face when considering abortion as one might expect from an old man in power deciding what’s best for women.

Gatschenberger wrapped up his presentation of H.B. 1613 with a bizarre defense of his legislation.

“Giving a choice to receive a photo of her unborn child to take with her can only increase the odds that she will choose life for her unborn baby…Who would argue against a woman having more information to make a decision?” he said. “These (ultrasound) photos will go on the fridge and get pasted in the baby’s book.”

One member of the committee asked Gatschenberger if he knew of any instances where abortion providers refused to show women ultrasound photos of unborn fetuses.

“Not off hand,” he replied.

An unidentified female committee member off camera took umbrage at Gatschenberger’s presentation.

“I can tell from personal experience, my miscarriage ultrasound didn’t go up on the fridge, so I think for you to sit there and suggest to women that those pictures always go up on the fridge, I think that’s completely unfair,” she said.

Perhaps not wanting to sound more obtuse about women’s issues than he already had, Gatschenberger offered a view into his experience in the lives of women.

“Just to show you God has a sense of humor though, I had four sisters growing up, so I was involved in a lot of things,” he told the committee.

Gatschenberger was then asked if he trusted his sisters to make their own decisions, upon which the second-term Republican House member compared a woman’s decision to get an abortion with his thought process in getting a new car or upgrades to his house.

“Yesterday I went over to the car lot over here. I was just going to get a key made for a vehicle and I was looking around because I’m considering maybe buying a new vehicle,” Gatschenberger told the committee. “Even when I buy a new vehicle – this is my experience, again – I don’t go right in there and say I want to buy that vehicle and leave with it. I have to look at it, get information about it, drive it. You know, a lot of different things; check prices, there’s a lot of things I do putting into a decision, whether that’s a car, whether that’s a house, whether that’s any major decision in my life. Even carpeting. You know, I was just considering getting some carpeting in my house, and that process probably took, you know, a month because just seeing all the aspects of it, because I was faced with a decision that I didn’t have very much information that I knew about. So I wanted to be as informed as possible and that’s what this bill is.”

What the bill is is an insult to women seeking a legal medical procedure, treating them as though they blithely make the decision to get an abortion without serious deliberation.

“I doubt that there’s many women that, you know, immediately upon finding that pregnancy test is positive, that they rush to seek that abortion,” a committee member said.

Watch the whole video yourself.