Thanks to the Virginia chapter of Democracy for America (the successor to Howard Dean's presidential run group) for pointing out this law coming from the heart of the red states, Virginia. Apparently, they want to put women in jail for up to a year if they have a miscarriage and don't report it to the police within 12 hours. Now,I am avowadly pro-choice (as part of my belief that the government should stay the hell away from me if I'm not bothering anyone else), but I don't think you have to be as militantly pro-choice as I am to recognize what an idiotic law this is, and what an evil law this is.
This is the anti-abortion lobby trying to equate a fetus (at whatever stage) with a full blown human being. As a father of 2 (fairly recent) boys, I remember my wife's pregnancy the first time (without having had a kid yet), and the second time (after we already had one), and I never, either time, had any illusions that the fetus in my wife's body was the same as the little kid we had running around the house, or as me or my wife.
But, to pass a law like this one, go to jail if you don't report every miscarriage within 12 hours? This is the typical intersection that I see of serial moralizing right wingers and serial imprisoning prosecutors. The goal, I've often believed, is to get as many people caught up as possible criminals as possible, get them all on probation or parole, and then you really control society (all, that is, except right wingers, who seem to slide from just about every wrong thing they do).
I know my site's veered too much into the political at times, and I've tried to steer it back to criminal law, but in my mind, this is criminal law at it's best (or worst).
Is there anyone around who can justify this proposed law?
2 comments:
"I remember my wife's pregnancy the first time (without having had a kid yet), and the second time (after we already had one), and I never, either time, had any illusions that the fetus in my wife's body was the same as the little kid we had running around the house, or..."
Perhaps if your wife had a miscarriage in her 2nd or 3rd trimester you'd think differently. Since she didn't, you're position to comment is a little questionable.
As someone whose mother had 5 miscarriages before she had me, I cant imagine the extra heartbreak having to 'report' this to an official within 12 hours would cause, when something like this can take months to emotionally recover from.
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