Marie Meszaros Pushed For Legislation Intended To Force Women In To Look At An Ultrasound Image Before Receiving An Abortion; The Proposed Bill Was So Extreme It Likely Violated The Constitution
Meszaros Urged The Head Of The Palmetto Family Council To Help Draft Legislation Intended To Force Women In South Carolina To View An Ultrasound Image Before Receiving An Abortion
When She Was A Director At The Right-Wing Christian Palmetto Family Council, Meszaros Urged The Group’s President To Work With South Carolina Lawmakers To Draft Legislation Intended To Force Women To Look At An Ultrasound Image Before Receiving An Abortion. “The S.C. House's landslide passage of an ultrasound abortion bill, which kindled a firestorm of attention and controversy, was sealed weeks before the House voted…Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council…and then-House candidate Mick Mulvaney of Lancaster County began to work on the bill's concept. The final impetus, Smith said, was a visit in early January from his 25-year-old research director, Marie [Meszaros], who approached him with a story and an envelope. [Meszaros] had an abortion five years ago, Smith said. An ultrasound had been performed, as state health regulations required. But she'd never been offered a chance to see it, Smith said. [Meszaros] said that when she went into the abortion clinic, she was still undecided, but everything happened so fast. In the manila envelope was the ultrasound image of [Meszaros]'s fetus. ‘It changed me,’ Smith said. ‘It changed everyone associated with it.’” [The Myrtle Beach Sun-News, 4/8/2007]
- Had Meszaros’s Preferred Version Of The Bill Been Enacted, South Carolina Would Have Become The First State In The US To Force Women To Look At An Ultrasound Image Before Receiving An Abortion. The Legislation Passed The House But Was Amended In The Senate Because Even Its Supporters Felt It Was Too Extreme To Withstand Legal Challenge. “The change Thursday would give women the option of viewing their ultrasound. The House last month passed a plan to require doctors performing the procedure to show the ultrasound to women. The amended version puts South Carolina more in line with what other states have done. The House version put South Carolina alone in requiring women review the pictures...Some might see the Senate version as weaker - just a way to write current DHEC regulations into law. Abortion foes, including the Palmetto Family Council's Oran Smith, say the Senate bill is more likely to stand a constitutional test. ‘We have to be realistic about where we are right now legally. And legally, there are boundaries that we can't cross unless we want to be tied up in court.’” [WIS-10, 7/9/2007]
Meszaros Advocated For The Proposed Legislation In Highly Personal Terms, Saying That Being Forced To Look At An Ultrasound Image Would Have Prevented Her From Having An Abortion
Meszaros Said She Wanted To Tell Women That Abortion “Brings Misery.” “Meszaros says pressing for the ultrasound legislation is just one part of her organization's efforts to tell women that they don't have to choose between abortion and misery: ‘Women don't realize that abortion itself brings misery.’” [WORLD MAGAZINE, 4/7/2007]
- South Carolina Democrats Described The Policy Meszaros Advocated As “Emotional Blackmail.” “…The ultrasound legislation proved a firecracker issue when it came to the South Carolina House floor in March. Representatives engaged in three hours of heated debate. Opponents of the bill called it ‘emotional blackmail.’ Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a Democrat who led opposition to the legislation, quoted Scripture about justice and told the bill's supporters: ‘You love them in the womb, but once they get here it's a different story.’ She added: ‘You're sitting here passing judgment. Who gave you the right?’” [WORLD MAGAZINE, 4/7/2007]
In Media Interviews, Meszaros Said That Abortion Results in “Relentless Heartache” and “Misery”
Meszaros Said That Being Forced To Look At An Ultrasound Image Would Save Women From The “Relentless Heartache” Of Abortion. “‘This legislation will serve as one last chance for those women who…unknowingly choose against their better judgment,’ said [Meszaros], a director at the family council. ‘More women will not have to bear the relentless heartache knowing they will never be able to hug their lost child.’” [AP, 3/17/2007]
Marie Meszaros Opposes The Use Of Birth Control
Meszaros Advocated For “Natural Family Planning” And Believes That The Use Of Birth Control Has Created A “Dangerous” Cultural “Contraceptive Mentality”
In An “Argument Both For Natural Family Planning And Against Contraception,” Meszaros Lamented That The “Contraceptive Mentality...Divorces Sex From Procreation And Treats Fertility As An Illness” And “Lays The Groundwork” For Abortion. “The contraceptive mentality is a culturally imbedded notion that began spreading profusely after the introduction of oral contraception in the early 1960s and the subsequent legalization of contraception in 1965. This contraceptive mentality divorces sex from procreation and treats fertility as an illness, a disease, which are all alien to the nature of the sexual act. Nonetheless the mentality is increasingly widespread. This mentality leads to fission in marital communication, detrimental impacts on women’s health, and even lays the groundwork for a societal justification of abortion. Given any one of these effects, it is evident that this mentality is dangerous.” [Notre Dame Right to Life, accessed 10/5/18]
As A Law Student, Meszaros Worked At The Becket Fund For Religious Liberty, Where She Worked On Cases To Defend Pharmacists’ “First Amendment Conscience Rights.” As a legal intern at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Meszaros “Analyzed state statutes and regulations to defend plaintiff-pharmacists’ first amendment conscience rights.” [American Oversight, accessed 10/5/18]
- The Becket Fund Was Co-Counsel For Two Pharmacists Who Refused To Dispense The Morning After Pill. “A federal court on Wednesday (Feb. 22) struck down a Washington state rule that requires pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill even if it violates their religious beliefs. Religious liberty advocates cheered the decision. They have decried the 2007 state regulation as a violation of pharmacists’ First Amendment rights, which guarantee freedom of religion. “Today’s decision sends a very clear message: No individual can be forced out of her profession solely because of her religious beliefs,” said Luke Goodrich, deputy national litigation director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund was co-counsel for two pharmacists who believe that life begins at the fertilization of a human egg, and can be destroyed by the pills.” [Washington Post, 2/22/12]
