Utah Has Now Made Miscarriage A Criminal Offense

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Utah Has Now Made Miscarriage A Criminal Offense

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/utah-has-now-made-miscarriage-crimina

By Nicole Belle Friday Feb 26, 2010 7:00am

I've mentioned before that I had a miscarriage several years ago. Emotionally, the scars lasted for years and years. My poor sister, pregnant again after two recent miscarriages, is holding her breath, hoping that this pregnancy goes all the way to term. For someone hoping for a child, a miscarriage can be a devastating thing.

And now in Utah, un-fricking-believably, it can now be a criminal thing too.

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, it just got a whole lot worse.

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 prosecution

But 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.

This legislation was prompted by the case of a 7 month pregnant 17 year old girl who paid a man $150 to beat her until it caused a miscarriage, but make no mistake, this is all about making it impossible to have an abortion, and controlling women through their reproductive options.

[RKP5637]

Place is turning into a Police State! n/t

[Schema Thing]

1. They should make it illegal for men to beat women

or is that too "progressive" for Utah?

[librechik]

18. better yet, make the man an accessory since he made her pregnant

[Fumesucker]

2. Every sperm is sacred,

Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

-Monty Python

[BolivarianHero]

3. Fucking Mor(m)ons...

What else is new? They're scum.

[laughingliberal]

4. Someone needs to ask Hatch what he thinks of his state's new law

and get him on record.

[Cleita]

5. This is what you have when you have a theocracy for a government.

It comes complete with Mullahs or they call them bishops. Make no mistake about it. Utah is run by the Church of Latter Day Saints and it's run on those principles. If you spend any time there, you become acutely aware of the fact that the state is run on religious rules and the Mormons who are patriarchal tell the women what to do, no matter how stupid it might be and this is really stupid.

[ensho]

6. insanity! women have NO CONTROL over miscarriages

those Utah men are ignorant as to how a woman's body works.

those Utah men should go home and stay there.

ridiculous, religiously insane men are a danger to women.

Utah is as embarrassing a State as the ludicrous, criminal State of Texas.

[On the Road]

7. Yes, But Read the Situation

This is a case where a woman paid someone to beat her abdomen so that she would miscarry. It's equivalent to the existing law against abortion.

[janet118]

8. It's time for women to leave that patriarchial hell hole.

Let the men go f@#k themselves.

[janet118]

9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

From The Handmaid's Tale:
It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.
Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.
I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.
Look out, said Moira to me, over the phone. Here it comes.
Here what comes? I said.
You wait, she said. They've been building up to this. It's you and me up against the wall, baby. She was quoting an expression of my mother's, but she wasn't intending to be funny.

[pipi_k]

11. I read that last year and got seriously freaked out.

Really really disturbing stuff.

[LeftinOH]

13. The film adaptation stars the late Natasha Richardson (but the book is better).

[pipi_k]

24. I've always liked the book version of a movie better

For one thing, I can draw my own mental images of what the characters look like (which hardly ever) match the movie actors

And another thing, there's more "meat" to the story. A lot gets left out of movies, like what a character might be thinking, or even whole parts of the story.

[Arugula Latte]

19. That book chilled me to the bone when I first read it.

And that was in the 80s ... It's gotten worse.

[pipi_k]

10. I did read the article and wondered why it was so scary to worry about the law passing, but then

I read another article:

http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/AFY_Will/2010/2/24/In-Utah-Miscarriage--Criminal-Homicide


which said that it's unlikely the governor will veto the bill, and even if he did, the legislature would only override it anyway.


This is just too outrageous to believe...I mean, I believe it, but damn...


If I were living in Utah, I would move away. Now.

[Cleita]

12. Well, let's hope the women of Utah stand up and fight for their rights.

They are mostly useful to the men as brood cows and should be sick of their subordinate status by now.

[LiberalFighter]

15. Utah women should beat the hell out of the men so they can't procreate.

[pipi_k]

27. Women's kickboxing classes at the "Y"....

:evilgrin:

[pipi_k]

26. I really hope the same thing but...

I fear that they'll just go along with it because they've been brainwashed to believe it's their lot in life.

[LeftinOH]

14. What about 'mis-spent' sperm? You *know* they'll want to outlaw that next.

[Supersedeas]

16. mens rea indeed

[Cerridwen]

17. I would not care to be travelling through Utah while pregnant...

much less live there while pregnant.

It used to be all you had to worry about were speed traps and making sure you had enough beer before Sunday came.

[Kalyke]

20. Maybe every woman in Utah needs to leave their spent tampons

at their local enforcement office or, better yet, the state legislative offices, with notes to check them for fetal elements.

Have a massive pile of bloodied sanitary wear piling up around these buildings might cause these men to realize how ridiculous their "laws" are.

[Tailormyst]

21. Scary, Handmaid's Tale-ish Scary

We are regressing quicker and quicker now.

[Jester Messiah]

22. Disgusting.

As a man I find their need to make property of women disgusting. Women don't deserve to be treated as walking baby factories.

[onenote]

23. Link to the law

Showing current law and amendment.

http://le.utah.gov/~2010/bills/hbillenr/hb0012.htm

[OhioChick]

25. Fucking insanity. n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Why not cancer? Malaria? Jock itch? Arthritis? Athletes foot? And, for them..stupid?

[pipi_k]

30. Who knows...maybe they'll even make it a crime to "mark" a child

with a birthmark or birth defect by watching a scary movie...


There's no limit to the stupid in Utah...

[pipi_k]

29. So I got a bit curious...

and wondered what the Freepers might be thinking/saying about this

Donning my gas mask and protective gear, I ventured over and did a search.

Curiously enough, there doesn't seem to be anything being said at all about it over there.


I know there will be people who will say, "Who cares!!??" and that's fine. But I'm the curious type, and I think it would be interesting to know what the "other side" makes of it. Do even THEY think it goes too far? Ironic if they did and the argument was that nobody has the right to tell them what to do with their own bodies....

;)

[fascisthunter]

31. what a bunch of no-good dumbfucks

and they claim to be doing god's work. My ass they are... if it's any mythological diety they follow, it's the devil.

[saracat]

32. Oddy, when this was first posted, some here supported it! More of this thinking

is spreading every day. The US is not a friendly country for women. Women are not treated as equals and the situation has worsened , not gotten better. our, anti- choice Dems have helped create this atmostphere, but for many this is acceptable, as long as we WIN.