I am speechless. On the surface, there are legitimate reasons for deterring women from obtaining pregnancy-ending services from non-physicians, though criminalization is harsh. But Utah is waiting for the Governor's signature on a bill that would make any miscarriage a potential murder case.
It's a reactionary measure to a case in which a 17-year-old girl paid someone to beat her up so she'd miscarry rather than obtain an abortion.
If anything, this case should make them see how important it is for women to have access to education about preventing pregnancy and access to legitimate medical procedures. Instead, they've determined that women need to be controlled, punished, locked away, even if it wasn't necessarily something under their control.
Did you get into an accident while you're pregnant and lose the baby? Did you have an allergic reaction to something you didn't need to have exposure to and miscarry? Fall down the stairs? Even if these things happened in the first trimester, it looks like Utah wants to see you in jail. Where is the line for "intent"? Why is the state government of Utah choosing criminalization over the safety and health of their female citizens?
Miscarriages are an emotional experience for women. Charging those who are legitimately distraught over losing their baby just increases the stress. Many miscarriages are due to medically uncontrollable circumstances - chromosomal abnormalities, infection, aberrant implantation. Clogging the legal process simply to make sure the women didn't play a role is unsustainable.
Other miscarriages may be due to lifestyle, such as drug and alcohol use, and these are the women they are targeting (as well as the overweight, poor, and uneducated). I just don't understand it though. Doesn't this indicate a need for education rather than prosecution? These women will spend their time in jail, and then just go on with their bad habits. How does this benefit children at all?
I just don't understand.
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Toby Beth Jarman
Dr. Evan Levine
Oryoki Bowl
Fay Paxton
lorianne
Mary Ann Sorrentino
Salon.com
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Here's a link to the proposed legislation, House Bill 12: Abortion Amendments
Excuse me I must get to my fainting couch, I feel the vapours coming on!
Measure on Illegal Abortions Heads to Governor - Salt Lake Tribune
House OK's Bill to Criminalize Intentional Miscarriages - Salt Lake Tribune
Women are chattel in male dominated cultures, their sexuality the property of males. The issue has nothing to do with saving or preserving lives. It is punishment for having unapproved sex.
The smokescreen of abortion has been so effective. The relegating so much of the rule setting to the states is responsible for so much of the abuse of the spirit of the law.
This fetish for states rights more generally is undoing our democracy.
________
"Sarah Palin says her faith left her no choice but to carry her unplanned (and dare I say unwanted) child to term. But, when a woman -- who's water has already broken -- illegally (or at least in violation of doctor's orders and airline policy) boards a plane for an eight-hour trip, and then takes another long ride to her local hospital, bypassing hospitals nearby, one can be forgiven for wondering if that woman isn't secretly hoping (dare I say praying) for a miscarriage.
But, of course, deliberately inducing a miscarriage of a late-term fetus isn't abortion -- or is it?"
__________
Looks like Palin better stay out of rtwingut Utah from now on, at least if my suspicions are correct.
With the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if some of my actions didn't contribute to the miscarriage.
(Another woman's trained perspective)
When I first saw a blog post about the bill I thought it was a joke. After confirming it was real I had the reaction I posted here. Since then I've been trying to understand what the legislators are thinking, they can't possibly be overlooking the broadness and problems a bill like this can cause. They removed the "reckless" wording, which just makes it more broad. Many are worried that the worst part of this bill will be the selective enforcement. I think it sets an awful precedent, and it's a huge step backward in autonomy.
I still don't understand - what they were thinking or why anyone would feel so superior over another's choices as many do in regards to women.
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Nah, I was kidding.
It's very believable.
So I wonder, which U.S. state is going to win the race to the bottom as far as womens' (read: human) rights are concerned?
A.