Guardian UK: Utah bill reduces women to incubators

[marmar]

Utah bill reduces women to incubators
It's already hard to get an abortion in Utah. Now a new bill opens the door to prosecuting women who 'intentionally' miscarry

Melissa McEwan
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010


Last week, Utah governor Gary Herbert signed into law Utah HB 462, known ignominiously as "the miscarriage bill". It was a reworked version of the original bill, introduced by Republican State Representative Carl D Wimmer, adjusted to address criticisms that the initial language "could have got women sent away for lifelong prison terms for falling down stairs or staying in an abusive relationship". The revised version "designates the 'intentional or knowing' miscarriage as criminal homicide" and "stipulates that a woman can be charged with homicide for 'the death of her unborn child', unless the death qualifies as legal abortion".

Thus are the women of Utah left with a new law that criminalises illegal abortion in a state that increasingly discourages legal abortions.

Utah already requires parental notification and consent for minors seeking abortions, mandates a 24-hour waiting period to terminate a pregnancy, subjects women seeking abortions to state-directed counselling which overtly discourages abortion, and allows public funding for terminations only in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality, or threat to the women's life or physical health. (Don't think you can get away with claiming your psychological health is at risk, ladies! Everyone knows that women would just lie about that to get an abortion because there's nothing conceivably traumatising about being forced to carry a pregnancy you don't want to term.)

As of 2005, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 93% of Utah counties had no abortion provider, leaving 25% of women in the state to travel at least 50 miles, and 8% to travel more than 100 miles, to get an abortion. There were six abortion providers in the whole of the state in 2005, and currently the state has only one licensed abortion clinic. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/mar/16/utah-miscarriage-bill-abortion

[helderheid]

1. I do my daughter no favors raising her in this state.

[helderheid]

2. Best not slip on the ice... murder charges could follow

[LiberalLoner]

3. Doesn't that mean every single miscarriage has to be investigated?

[Wizard777]

4. Why not? Men have been reduced to little more than sperm donors with a wallet.

[Sal Minella]

6. Best to remember that "donating" the sperm puts the wallet at risk then, eh?

If you don't want to go on the ride, don't buy the ticket.

[Wizard777]

13. Men should have an equal say in the pregnancy.

Then women have some consequences for going along on that ride. What is their womb is NOT entirely theirs. If a woman sneaks out of the house in the morning leaving behind her purse with a 20,000.00 diamond wedding ring in it and several thousand dollars in cash in it. I can't keep it and say she nolonger has any control over it. A mans sperm should at the very least have the same rights as a womans purse. That sperm is still my property. I have a say in the pregnancy I'm a party too.

[Lars39]

14. *You* can't die from a pregnancy, even if your sperm is involved.

[Wizard777]

16. But Husbands can chose between saving the wife and saving the baby if circumstances allow..

But that aside. I'm talking about normal healthy pregnancies where the mothers life is not at risk.

[Lars39]

17. The mother is at risk in every single damn pregnancey.

Every single one.

[Kitty Herder]

22. Amen.

What do some men not get about that?

[Kitty Herder]

23. WTF??!!

NO, NO, NO!!!! No man gets to choose to prioritize the life of the unborn over his living, breathing wife. The choice to put her life in danger by carrying a pregnancy is hers alone as is the choice to end a dangerous pregnancy. Butt the fuck out. It's not your life on the line. You do NOT own a woman, even if you have impregnated her. Get it? Women are not your possessions. We are not things that are to be used as fuck toys or as incubators. Our bodies are our own. NOT yours.

[Canuckistanian]

26. "Husbands can choose" - WTF?

So in your mind, husbands have the absolute last authority?

And what about the wife's views? Do they have any validity or should they just shut up and conform to the husband's wishes?

You sound like a Promise Keeper.

[Sal Minella]

18. Purity of Essence.

Do not let some evil scheming woman get it away from you. She's probably just after your wallet, you know.

And btw you have NO say in the pregnancy, unless the woman wanted to be pregnant by you, for some mysterious reason, and is willing to let you have a say.

[marmar]

7. WTF?

:wtf:

[BlueIris]

8. Take your imaginary victimization elsewhere, please.

[Wizard777]

12. Why don't you take your Misandry to a Bachmann Palin rally.

[Kitty Herder]

21. Wizard777, you and your reactionary, misogynist politics would fit right in there. nt

[helderheid]

15. ?

[Kitty Herder]

20. Wizard777, I think you're lost.

Were you looking for reactionary right-wing underground? This isn't it. Check out Free Republic. They might buy what you're selling.

[ceile]

5. I don't know whether to scream or cry

:mad:

[gratuitous]

9. If an incubator malfunctions, you'd fix it

If a woman miscarries, you'd toss her in jail. I submit that incubators have it better in Utah.

So, will the state set up a Department of Menses Inspection, and will all sexually active, fertile women be required to submit their monthly discharge for inspection to be sure that no fertilized eggs failed to implant? Can the state really afford to be too careful here, in allowing suspected murderers off the hook month after month?

[Swede Atlanta]

10. Interesting to see how DAs react......

These cases would be very difficult to try and prove. The state Assembly may have an intent but it is still up to each DA to determine which cases they will bring. Let's see what happens with this. I smell a constitutional challenge coming in the next decade or so.

[Quantess]

11. K & R

[Grand Taurean]

19. I have no intention of ever visiting Utah.

[Kitty Herder]

24. Women have always been seen as incubators in Utah, anyway.

This is the logical extension of that attitude.

I doubt the law will stand. It will be struck down in court. I hope. If the law stands, I'm moving if I ever get pregnant.

I hate this state sometimes.

[Grand Taurean]

25. Any state that allows Mittens Romney to have 10 wives....

enough said.

[Solly Mack]

27. k/r