HB 1677, "Report of fetal death by mother, penalty"

[Oilwellian]

It sounds preposterous to talk about criminalizing women who suffer miscarriages, but one Virginia legislator is proposing just that. HB1677, “Report of Fetal Death by mother, penalty” is a bill introduced by John A. Cosgrove (R) of Chesapeake. Cosgrove’s bill requires any woman who experiences “fetal death” without a doctor’s assistance to report this to the local law-enforcement agency within twelve hours of the miscarriage. Failure to do so is punishable as a Class 1 Misdemeanor.

http://democracyforvirginia.typepad.com/democracy_for_virginia/2005/01/legislative_sen.html

Didn't realize this thread is a dupe:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2916861

[revree]

1. Gee, I know hundreds of women who will be sent to prison already...

where will they get the money for all those prisons? I mean, every woman practically suffers a miscarriage while trying to get pregnant.

These idiots are overreaching. Soon, the pendelum will swing sanity back in our direction.

WOMEN, UNITE!!! WE STOOD UP IN CONGRESS YESTERDAY. WE CAN STAND FOR OUR LIVES AND BODIES TODAY!!!

[DavidDvorkin]

3. I keep waiting for the massive pendulum swing back to rationality

But I have the awful, depressing conviction that it happened during the last election but it didn't matter because of fraud.

In which case, the loons will keep solidifying their control and getting loonier, and stories like this one will become commonplace.

[LynzM]

2. That's absolutely absurd.

Looking into newborn death which occurs at home, ok, I can see that. But I know that about half the moms I know (give or take a few) have suffered miscarriages. One more reason not to live in Virginia, sadly, if that goes through. Not to mention, how would they EVER KNOW?! The majority of miscarriages happen early in pregnancy, often before women even share the fact that they are pregnant with anyone outside of their family. Sheesh.

[China_cat]

4. Here is Cosgrove's answer

as to why this bill has been introduced:

This bill, which was requested by the Chesapeake Police Department, is an attempt to reduce the number of "trashcan" babies that are born and then abandoned in trashcans, toilets, or elsewhere to die from exposure or worse. There are numerous examples of these tragic deaths in Virginia, many in Northern Virginia and also in Hampton Roads. Once the body of a child is found, if the death of that child is undetermined by a coroner, the person abandoning that child can only be charged with "the improper disposal of a human body". That is the intent of the bill.

Somebody please tell me where this makes any sense at all.

[Justin54B20L]

5. See, this is the same sort of thing I've been saying all along...

about the abortion debate.

If abortion is made illegal, and the reason being that abortion is technically murder, then by extenuating the law in all cases, miscarriage's would constitute a involuntary manslaughter charge.

See this proposed law is just a stepping stone. Republicans used to stand for smaller government, but just look at the Orwellian and draconian steps they are taking to push government into every facet of private life. But I guess that this is in line with how they think nowadays and is justified to them, just as soon as they bring down that whole "wall-thing" Jefferson was talking about.

Having a miscarriage is a traumatic experience for a woman (I only assume) and to have the threat of prosecution on top of it is wholly wrong, insensitive, and morally reprehensible.

[Jacobin]

6. Here is the answer to that:

To make absolutely certain that no possibly fertilized egg ever goes unreported, all women in Virginia should mail all of their sanitary napkins or other such devices in a cardboard box to the Virginia legislature, each and every month.

Because, it is simply not possible to tell if there may have been an egg that got fertilized and spontaneously aborted every month.

If each and every woman in Virginia does this each and every month, it might be effective