Posts Tagged ‘miscarriage’

Recently, I wrote a post on legislation introduced in Utah which could criminalize certain types of miscarriages. The bill has now passed the Utah legislature and been signed into law by the state’s governor.

There was, however, one rather significant change before the bill was finalized; namely, the word “reckless” was removed, meaning that most of the hypotheticals I posed in my previous post are no longer issues. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Carl Wimmer, stated in an interview that the term was removed to ensure that the bill was signed into law.

I’d recommend reading the entire interview, because it’s fascinating. The interviewer seems to be pro-choice and, as a result, asks some pretty interesting questions. Some of the highlights include Wimmer’s plans to get “reckless” back in the bill, his desire to overturn Roe v. Wade, and his desire to get this bill passed in more states.

In my opinion, the highlight of the interview occurs when Rep. Wimmer is asked this:

“You say you care about life, so what programs will you put in place to make sure all of those children have a decent life?”

This is a fair question, and one that you don’t normally see asked of anti-choicers. But it’s a valid issue… if you ban abortion, many unwanted pregnancies will occur… and what happens to those children? Rep. Wimmer’s answer:

“I’m not sure the government needs to be doing that. There are plenty of volunteer organizations that help.”

To me, this is indicative of the true aims of the anti-choice movement. If it was really about helping children, Wimmer should have a laundry list of ideas of how to help them. But he doesn’t. He has no clue, and it doesn’t seem to concern him at all. No… what this is really about is deciding for women what they should do with their bodies, consequences and lives be damned. There’s nothing “pro-life” about Rep. Wimmer. And if he gets his way, there are going to be many individuals who suffer because of his policies.

The state of Utah is on the brink of enacting a dangerous piece of legislation, as a bill that would criminalize women for having miscarriages has now passed both the state House and Senate and is heading to the governor for his signature. The bill, which was inspired by an incident in which a woman who was seven months pregnant paid a man $150 to assault her in the hopes of causing a miscarriage, would allow murder charges to be brought against a woman who arranges to have an illegal abortion. As troubling as that is, it just gets worse. Though the bill does include language that protects a woman from prosecution if she secures a legal abortion, it also allows charges to be brought against women who have a miscarriage through an “intentional, knowing, or reckless” act.

Of course, “reckless act” is not defined, leading it open to any number of interpretations. As commentators on the linked article point out, could a woman who has a miscarriage after going skiing or biking be charged with murder? How about one who neglects to wear a seatbelt and gets in a car accident? Will a pregnant woman who falls down a flight of stairs be under a cloud of suspicion, as police attempt to ascertain if it truly was an accident? (Not to mention the domestic abuse and substance abuse issue that this fine article points out.) The fact that this bill allows prosecutions for miscarriages in the first trimester could also means that a woman could be charged with a crime for engaging in “reckless” behavior and causing a miscarriage for a pregnancy she didn’t even know she had.

There is still hope that the governor of Utah won’t sign the bill, but I’m not especially optimistic. The end result is a law that both severely punishes women and acts as a vote of tacit approval for the more chilling pieces of anti-choice legislation. What do you think? Is this bill’s success the start of more extreme anti-choice bills?