WP: House Advances Bill to Punish Forced Miscarriages

[MountainLaurel]

I am SO glad that I escaped Virginia. I wonder how they're planning to prove the miscarriage was forced?

The Virginia House of Delegates gave tentative approval Monday to a bill to make it a felony for a woman to cause her own miscarriage but rejected a proposal to give fertilized eggs and fetuses the "right to enjoyment of life."

With the legislative session nearing its midpoint, the House considered a half-dozen bills aimed at restricting abortion or cracking down on people who harm fetuses.

In a flurry of votes, the House gave preliminary approved to a bill that would require doctors to give women the option of viewing an ultrasound before an abortion. It also agreed to require doctors to give women information about how anesthesia can be provided to a fetus during the procedure.

Two bills that would make it a crime to force a miscarriage received preliminary approval in the House. Under one, a person other than the mother could be charged with involuntary manslaughter for causing a miscarriage. Under the other, a woman who causes her own miscarriage could be charged with a felony and face up to 10 years in prison. The legislation would not outlaw the morning-after pill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020501507.html

[Virginia Dare]

1. Fundie misogynistic racist assholes rule this fucking state...

Can you get your mind of sex and guns long enough to figure out the fucking transportation bill dickwads? That's a rhetorical question, because of course they can't.

[momster]

2. Somebody Explain This Part

<<But Del. Vivian E. Watts (D-Fairfax) noted that the legislation applies to all pregnant women, regardless of the stage of their pregnancies. Watts said a young woman will sometimes cause herself to miscarry because she is too afraid to talk to her parents about an abortion.

"What you got before you," Watts said, "is a situation where a female who may be a month or two pregnant, her grandmother tells her 'whatever,' her friends tell her 'whatever' . . . and she decides to produce an abortion, and we are going to penalize her with a felony?">>

What, in this context, does 'whatever' mean? I've read this half a dozen times since I saw it in the paper this morning and I still can't figure it out.

[MountainLaurel]

4. My guess

Whatever is being used as a substitute for "home remedies for causing miscarriage."

[momster]

7. Aha!

Thanks...that makes sense. I was thinking more along the lines of "whateverrr", you know, that irritating thing with the hands in the shape of a W. As if the grandmother and friends weren't concerned at all with the girl's pregnancy.

[iconoclastic cat]

3. So if you miscarry, your uterus will become a crime scene.

It will be investigated.

[MountainLaurel]

5. What is the Latin American country

That now has "vagina inspectors" as part of its new, completely pro-forced-birth legislation?

[woodsprite]

6. Does this mean if you have a hymen, you're considered

an obstructionist?

Sorry - awful joke. Couldn't resist at 4:40 on what sure as heck FEELS like a Friday. :silly:

[fudge stripe cookays]

13. El Salvador, I believe.

And the fucktards want to bring that shit here. It's veering closer every year.

[Nobody]

8. So what about smokers?

I know a woman who smoked through all of her pregnancies, two of them were miscarriages.

A few questions:

Will the vagina police come after her?
Will there be a statue of limitation on every woman who has had a miscarriage ever in her life? How can they tell one miscarriage from another?
Supposing she doesn't want someone sticking instruments up her vagina? Would they force instruments up there and run the risk of being prosecuted for rape?
Many miscarriages appear to be heavy periods. Would every woman who has heavy periods have to submit to the vagina inspectors? Can these women prosecute for rape charges if they're not willing to be examined?
Will it suddenly be illegal for any woman of childbearing age to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke? How about engaging in vigorous sports?

I hate it when something that isn't even viable gets precedence over a living, breathing woman who's already here.

[MountainLaurel]

11. Here is the world these people want

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/09abortion.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=d855d7f018cc8c56&ex=1302235200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Although I think the smoking clause would get thrown out the window the first time some woman claimed that her MC wasn't caused by her smoking but by the industrial pollutants her campaign-donating corporate neighbor has been dumping into the water and air and soil for the past few decades.

[Katherine Brengle]

9. That is so FUCKED ---

Forgive me if this comes off as too angry, but I feel like my fucking brain is going to explode.

Unless a woman went to the police and flat out said, "I did this on purpose," there is no way to enforce this. Other than --

TO TREAT EVERY WOMAN WHO LOSES A PREGNANCY AS A FUCKING CRIMINAL.

I lost a pregnancy less than 2 weeks ago. It was the most harrowing and emotionally painful experience of my entire life. I was crushed.

The kindness and empathy of all of the medical staff involved in my treatment made this horror much easier to bear.

I cannot imagine how much worse it would have been if I had to PROVE that I was not responsible for losing my baby. How FUCKED UP is that???

I'm seething right now...

[MountainLaurel]

10. Oh, KB

First off, I am so sorry to hear about your loss.

I agree completely about what the enforcement of this law would mean. Virginia is the same state that saw a bill a couple years ago that would require women to report any "fetal death" to the police. Of course, the scum who wrote the bill said his point was horribly misunderstood after the outcry. But in El Salvador, which recently put into law one of the restrictive abortion laws on the planet, ectopic pregnancies cannot be removed until the woman dies and the country has created a new job position: forensic vagina inspector. This is the world that the MEN who wrote these two bills want for American women.

[Katherine Brengle]

12. ...

Wow I hadn't heard that story, I will be checking into it now though.

And thank you.

[Geezus]

14. Don't worry too much, this bill will get tossed out pretty quickly

Supreme Court precedents trump any and all state legislation. When the law is challenged in court it will probably get thrown out immediately.

[HappyWeasel]

15. at least they threw out the abortion ban.

[Iris]

16. wow. So does that mean engaging in what might be preceived as risky behavior?

Like working out or playing tennis or something?

[HockeyMom]

17. I had a miscarriage at 6 weeks

Actually, I never would have know if my routine checkup hadn't occurred around the same time. My doctors asked me, "Did you have a unusually heavy late period?" He said from the looks of his examination, I probably had a very early miscarriage. Absolutely, no way to positively tell.

Poor Fundies. At that early stage, there is nothing to see. Imagine them trying to PROVE all this? Save your tampons? Save the contents of your toilet bowl??? Did I drink too much? Have too much coffee? Maybe those OTC Flu meds did it?????



:rofl: