That same year—in 2008—I was deployed overseas in Iraq and I saw the real effects of a culture that did not value human life. Today, I am proud to stand here and support life here at home.
We aren’t going to settle the fundamental question of abortion and human life and the value of human life today with this vote, but I really hope that we can at least take a step back and say that this particular procedure is gruesome and barbaric and we need to stop it.
Senator Hertel’s statement is as follows:
I was not planning on speaking today, and I can understand the disagreements that sometimes happen in this chamber and that reasonable people can have different opinions on issues. That being said, rhetoric like what we just heard from the good Senator from the 24th District is dangerous in a state where we have doctors and women being threatened as they are trying to receive basic health care in this state.
We have got to be careful of our language in this building. It will be replayed over and over again and when you start using words like “barbaric,” you are in some people’s eyes going to justify horrible, horrible actions. I am sure that is not your intent, but we must be careful in this body. I am deeply afraid; we literally have death threats that have happened at clinics across the state. We have had people threatened on their way in who are just trying to receive birth control. We have to watch what we say here.
I understand how the vote is going to go down. We understand why it’s being done today—that it’s a lobby day at the Capitol. We understand that for the last four years, Republicans controlled every part of this body and didn’t run this bill and are running it now for political reasons. You get your day, I get that. But I will not have those doctors and those women who are trying to receive legal, safe medical treatment, and oftentimes are going into a Planned Parenthood for something else to have their lives risked by words we use on this floor.
I am asking my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to be careful in the language that is chosen here on this floor today.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 230, entitled
A bill to amend 1927 PA 175, entitled “The code of criminal procedure,” by amending section 16d of chapter XVII (MCL 777.16d), as amended by 2016 PA 88.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: