Once again, an anti-abortion Republican lawmaker argued against access to the procedure by comparing pregnant women to breeding livestock.
While debating a potential 14-week abortion ban Thursday, Wisconsin state Rep. Joel Kitchens told his colleagues he knows that “abortion is not health care” because of his career as a veterinarian working with pets, cattle, horses and other farm animals.
“You know, in my veterinary career, I did thousands of ultrasounds on animals, you know, determining pregnancy and that kind of thing,” Kitchens said. “So I think I know mammalian fetal development better than probably anyone here. And in my mind, there’s absolutely no question that’s a life, and I think the science backs me up on that.”
No major scientific or medical group agrees with Kitchens’ claims about fetuses.
The moment was first reported on and shared by Heartland Signal.
This isn’t the first time a lawmaker has compared pregnant women to livestock. A year ago, Idaho state Rep. Jack Nelsen was forced to apologize after he suggested his experience as a “lifelong dairy farmer” gave him some expertise on women’s reproductive health.
“I’ve milked a few cows, spent most of my time walking behind lines of cows, so if you want some ideas on repro and the women’s health thing, I have some definite opinions,” Nelsen joked during a meeting of the state’s House Agricultural Affairs Committee.
When a 20-week abortion ban was on the table in Georgia in 2012, then-state Rep. Terry England, who spent years as a farmer, suggested that if farm animals had to deliver dead offspring, then so could women.
“I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive — delivering pigs, dead and alive. … It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it,” he said while advocating for the bill.
Being forced to carry a non-viable fetus to term can kill a pregnant person.
Later on Thursday, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Assembly approved the measure calling for a statewide referendum to ban abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy. It’s unclear whether the effort will pass in the state Senate and ultimately go to voters in April.