Image & video via the AthensPatch.

State Representative Doug McKillip is still defending his “no exceptions” ban on abortions after 20 weeks, the ban that dooms a pregnant woman to carry and give birth to fetuses with severe anomalies unless they can *prove* the child will die as soon as it is born, and, in the case of an abortion, would force her to undergo whatever procedure makes it “most likely the child will survive,” even if that means a forced cesarean section that could affect all future deliveries.

Now, he’s telling the audiences in his debates with Republican Regina Quick that he spoke to numerous obstetricians who said his bill was ok. But more importantly, the insurance industry approved it, too.

Via the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

McKillip said he indeed talked to and “got great advice” from obstetricians: Sex. Abortion. Parenthood. Power. The latest news, delivered straight to your inbox. SUBSCRIBE “More importantly, I talked to the insurance providers – the people who actually pay the bills for the tests that are necessary to provide the better care. They said, ‘We will simply do the tests earlier.’…In fact it will result in better care for pregnant women. It will result in no barbaric, late-term abortion which results in physical pain to the baby. And it will make Georgia a leader in the pro-life movement. So I’m afraid my pro-choice opponent is badly out of step with Republican principles of life in this state.’

There’s a problem with getting medical advice from insurers. They don’t have medical degrees. Moreover, tests that reveal many fetal anomalies can’t be done earlier because often serious issues aren’t reveal until 20 weeks, which is why a pregnant woman is told to wait until then.

Most earlier tests — amniocentesis, quad screens and CVs — are actually paid out-of-pocket and are not covered by insurance unless a doctor can prove that you are high risk and the tests are necessary. And in the case of amnio, doctors weight the risk of the likelihood of an anomaly with the risk of miscarriage that the procedure can cause.

So, in order to “save babies” from a pain that the vast majority of the medical profession agrees a fetus cannot feel, McKillip wants to increase the risk of miscarriage.

How very pro-life of him.

Watch it here: