Legislative insanity
25 February 2010 by StardustWe all know how fucked up the state of Utah is on many things:
Utah is not a state known for its legislative sanity. This, after all, is a state that recently made headlines for proposing to honor gun manufacturers on Martin Luther King Day and for considering the elimination of 12th grade to cut back on education spending.
Well, things just keep on getting worse:
In Utah, Miscarriage = Criminal Homicide
Utah just became the first state in the U.S. to criminalize miscarriage and punish women for having or seeking an illegal abortion. Utah’s “Criminal Miscarriage” law:
* expands the definition of illegal abortion to include miscarriages
* removes immunity protections for women who have or seek illegal abortions
* treats women as presumptive criminals and leaves them open to criminal prosecutionBut even among states that punish illegal abortions, this “Criminal Miscarriage” law is unique. It not only punishes individuals who perform illegal procedures; it punishes women.
How Utah defined miscarriage as criminal homicide?
Utah’s “Criminal Miscarriage” law (H.B.12) makes simple changes to the state’s definition of “abortion” and the section of the Utah Criminal Code governing “criminal homicide.”
This law:
* defines legal abortion as a procedure “carried out by a physician or through a substance used under the direction of a physician.” Anything else that terminates a pregnancy is now defined as illegal abortion – including miscarriages.
* states that “The killing or attempted killing of a live unborn child in a manner that is not abortion shall be punished as…criminal homicide.” (emphasis mine)
* removes existing immunity from criminal prosecution for women “who seek to have or obtain an abortion” or “upon whom a partial birth abortion is performed.”
* applies the legal standard of an “intentional, knowing or reckless act of the woman” as punishable as criminal homicide.
Translation: If a woman has a miscarriage but didn’t know that she was pregnant, she cannot be charged with criminal homicide. So while this law does not criminalize all miscarriages, anything that could be defined as “knowing” or “reckless” would leave a woman at risk for criminal prosecution.
Could it really be that bad?
Yes, it could. . . It’s Utah!
Practically speaking however, this bill changes the presumption that abortions obtained in this state are legal. If this bill is signed into law, women in this state will essentially be in the uncomfortable and unfortunate position of having to prove that abortions they obtain (or miscarriages that they suffer) are not unlawful.
*snip*
A woman who fails to wear a seatbelt and is in a car accident could be charged with reckless homicide, should she miscarry. Likewise, a woman who has a substance abuse problem is likely to forego necessary prenatal care out of fear that she could be prosecuted for “knowing” or “reckless” homicide by continuing to use illegal substances while pregnant.
What can we do about it?
It’s time for everyone to hear about Utah’s “Criminal Miscarriage” law. The media must to cover it. We must to start conversations all across the country about what this means for women and girls in Utah – and what this precedent means if (or, more likely, when) other states follow suit. (A similar case in Iowa should be all the warning we need.)
So post this on Facebook. Tweet it. Forward it to five friends. And ask them all to do the same.
25 February 2010, on 3:59 pm
“Utah- “Making Alaska seem progressive for 50 years!”
25 February 2010, on 7:15 pm
I will never understand how some people get the vapors over the concept of a peaceable individual keeping and bearing the most effective means of protecting her body, when they turn around and argue that she has the right to make decisions about her own body when it comes to reproductive health. Yes, it is silly for legislators deciding for everyone else who to honor on what day. But if Utah had voted to honor people who fight breast cancer–something which, like a gun, can save a woman’s life–would that be any more or less “fucked up?”
As for making cuts in government schools, that’s preferable to piling on debt to the children attending those schools. I could have done just fine going to college after 11th grade and plenty of people who don’t go to college could have gotten on with the business of earning a living one year sooner, while their bodies were at their peak of performance.
If you’d dropped the two paragraphs at the top, I’d have no problem with your criticisms.
26 February 2010, on 12:43 am
Steve, I would agree with you for the most part about school, that last year not really being necessary. Our three kids skipped right over the whole high school scene and did a combo of independent study and early community college. However, many of the dumbfuck parents like in Utah would allow their kids to fuck around and do nothing for that extra year, or maybe they would just go get married younger and start producing their herds of offspring. Who knows.
The main point of this post is the legislation regarding miscarriage being criminalized and that is absurd and just plain wrong.
I had a stillbirth, and two miscarriages after. What if they had wanted to “investigate” my unfortunate losses of my baby and my other two miscarriages? To go through something like that and then to be investigated and have to prove you did nothing to cause it is cruel and unjust. A woman, when she loses a child asks those questions as it is….did I do this, or didn’t I do something I should have? But to be legally investigated would be horrible on top of all the grief.
So, while I may have gone with the article with my “lead in” of the story, I hope you haven’t missed the whole point.
26 February 2010, on 10:21 am
strange…I could have sworn that Roe v. Wade made it illegal for any state to declare abortion illegal b/c it violated a woman’s rite to privacy:
“We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation.” -Section VIII Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Ruling
26 February 2010, on 12:21 pm
What does the bill say about Utah residents that go out of state to get an abortion and then return? And doesn’t this bill go against the Roe v. Wade ruling?
26 February 2010, on 1:14 pm
Time to start hacking off the genitals of men in Utah to prevent even the possibility of their women getting accidentally pregnant! Let’s start with all of the Legislators!
26 February 2010, on 3:37 pm
@stardust However, many of the dumbfuck parents like in Utah would allow their kids to fuck around and do nothing for that extra year, or maybe they would just go get married younger and start producing their herds of offspring. Who knows.
We don’t know what will happen in the future, and I don’t care to guess based upon demographic/geographic stereotypes. What those families do is not really our business. Well, if their bad choices cost us taxes, that could be our business, but then I’d prefer solving that problem by not giving people like that who make bad choices tax money. Some people just won’t make good choices if they are able to duck personal accountability.
@stardust So, while I may have gone with the article with my “lead in” of the story, I hope you haven’t missed the whole point.
I got it and I share your disgust with the legislation. It’s not the government’s business. It’s particularly cruel to engage in intrusive, abusive investigations. For the most part, police and prosecutors who chose to enforce this law would be making wild guesses about what happened, and in such situations, they are often driven by ulterior motives (racism, religious zealotry, inflated conviction numbers, fear of looking incompetent). Some of the blogs I follow are filled with endless examples of police and prosecutors abusing their authority, including such wonderful tactics as putting mentally slow people in interrogation rooms for endless hours until they get a “confession.”
Those women who wanted a baby and are distraught and grieving, who did nothing to cause the miscarriage, will be particularly vulnerable. People in such an emotional state can often be more easily coerced into feeling guilty. Even if they don’t break down and make a false “admission” to stop the abuse, it could exact a heavy toll on their mental states. How cruel would that be?
And, those women who didn’t want to have a baby or who had mixed feelings, who might have confided such things to someone else, might be subjected to witch hunts.
One of the biggest weaknesses of democracy is the overwhelming motivation of politicians to grandstand and one-up each other to show voters they are tough on crime or “true Christians” because so many of the voters lap up that nonsense. It’s how we get the insanity of Drug Prohibition, mandatory minimum sentences, zero tolerance, and other such anti-rational laws.
OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
26 February 2010, on 10:48 pm
Are you sure this isn’t some Islamic trick? It really smacks of Muslim fundamentalism gone wild in America.
1 March 2010, on 2:50 pm
It can happen. Here is a story I picked up from Richard Dawkins website.
This is just unbelievable.
Think about all the DOJ prosecutors from evangelical law schools. It won’t take many of them in very few but key positions to funnel lawbreakers through the christian just(us) system.
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/pregnant_iowa_woman_arrested_for_falling_down
2 March 2010, on 12:41 am
RE the whole abortion issue, here’s a link to Part 1 of 7 of the VERY shocking and revealing HBO documentary…
“Soldiers in the Army of God”
[March, 2001 HBO Documentary]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d1n0zDngPI
I think, especially in light of the recent Dr. George Tiller assassination and even the whole, very current, ‘Stupak’ (Stupid?) BS RE the Health Care issue, any atheist who might possibly STILL think that Christianity DOESN’T often, and commonly, spawn total insanity should see this documentary. These anti-choice fundamentalists are definitely and SERIOUSLY bat-shit crazy; and they’re living amongst us, undeterred; having actually GROWN in numbers since this 2001 documentary. [Are we having fun, yet?]
Personally, I have absolutely NO respect for any religions; and when people get as nuts as the extremist anti-choice crowd as portrayed rather vividly in several recent documentaries, my personal respect for their so-called “right” to believe whatever they want, goes right out the proverbial window; especially when it turns murderously violent.
Fascism, under the guise of widespread, totally self-righteous Christian religious fervor, is definitely on the march AGAIN; with no need for any Adolph Hitler type. [Jesus will do?] And we atheists and other secularists are LITERALLY in their cross-hairs.
Not depressed enough?…
Another, I think, “must see” HBO documentary, from 2006, is Alexandra Pelosi’s “Friends of God” documentary. (Part 1 of 6):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxg-BpgikRA
And as long as I’m linking stuff…
also by Pelosi & HBO…RE the 2008 Presidential election…
“Right America Feeling Wronged” (Part 1 of 6):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxDgRr_Ynvc&feature=related
5 March 2010, on 2:40 am
At what point do we openly enslave women as our obligatory childbearers? Do we make possesion of a vagina a criminal offence before or after we outlaw cranberry juice?
How many countless women have surely expelled a fertilized egg turned into a few cells unknowingly? Will we have room for them in prison? As long as we cut education spending we can just build more prisons!
Steve – I think its great to mislead people into thinking that anything less than cutting education spending is putting the future generations in debt. This way they will advocate for less access to public education! Great work Steve! It’s not like the state spends tax dollars on anything else other than schools right? I agree with you on the 2nd, but I disagree that a gun is the most effective way of protecting one’s body. Common sence and condoms will give you better protection. Don’t count on that gun saving you – go shoot a deer with it instead!
5 March 2010, on 8:09 pm
@real jasen hylber I think its great to mislead people into thinking that anything less than cutting education spending is putting the future generations in debt. This way they will advocate for less access to public education!
Good thing I didn’t do that. I was reacting to a news story in which the politicians picked 12th grade. I didn’t pick it. It was just a handy example. I suppose I could have gone on and on about all the various permutations and what-ifs. meh
Also, I’m not sure what “access” has to do with graduating everyone after the 11th grade, since everyone will have “access” to K-11.
Great work Steve! It’s not like the state spends tax dollars on anything else other than schools right?
Hey, cut the damned budgets across the board! Grab a butcher’s cleaver and hack off whole bureaus and departments.
I don’t have much regard for the K-12 offered in
publicgovernment schools. My kids went/have gone to government schools most of the time, but when we were in a position to get them into private/charter schools, the increase in quality was obvious. If I had more money, they would never have seen the inside of a government school. Besides doing a worse job of teaching basic subjects, schools have increasingly become collectivist brainwashing camps, where learning to have critical thinking skills can take a back seat to political agendas. (Remember how we were all taught to mindlessly chant the Pledge of Allegiance and other such rot?)Don’t count on that gun saving you – go shoot a deer with it instead!
I don’t care for venison and I despise trophy hunting.
But I’d never presume to tell someone else they don’t need a gun to protect themselves, or that it won’t do themy any good. That’s a personal choice and if they decide to have one, it’s their responsibility to learn how to use it and to secure it properly.