Friday, February 26, 2010

Utah Has Now Made Miscarriage A Criminal Offense

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.

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

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