COLUMBIA, SC — This morning the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee debated S. 811, which allows medical professionals to discriminate against patients by withholding care. SCDP Chair Trav Robertson, Jr. released the following statement:
“It is baffling to me that on the second day of the legislative session, Republican state senators spent over an hour debating a bill that allows practitioners to discriminate against elderly and dying patients. South Carolinians want expanded, affordable access to healthcare, not a bill that allows doctors to become the arbiters of death. If this is any indication of how 2022 is going to play out at the South Carolina State House, it seems Republicans will spend the coming months wasting time and taxpayer dollars in pursuit of a far-right wing agenda. We will fight this discriminatory legislation tooth and nail.
“Clearly these modern day Republicans do not subscribe to the moral tenets of Ronald Reagan, who signed the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act which requires patients be treated regardless of their ability to pay.
“Senator Brad Hutto deserves a lot of credit for holding Republican elected officials accountable for this terrible legislation. He poked so many holes in Senator Josh Kimbrell’s testimony, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, that S.811 is carried over for additional debate in the subcommittee.”
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