Creating A New Class of "Murderers"

The radical religious right (rrr) is bound and determined to ban abortions. (I realize there are those who are not religious who want to ban abortions as well, but for the most part, the vast majority of those who are anti-choice are in the religious right.) They write all kinds of laws in the hopes that one of them will stand up when challenged in court.

Some are often declared unconstitutional, like the one in Oklahoma that would have required women seeking an abortion to fill out a 37 question "survey" and have the results "anonymously" posted online.

Some have not really been challenged, like the one in North Dakota that declares that defines human life as beginning at conception.

They've passed laws that give "fetal rights" to "viable" fetuses that are "killed" during the commission of a crime. Of course, the hope is that with more and more technology, the "age" at which a fetus is "viable" will get closer and closer to conception. We can already save a baby born at just over halfway through a normal pregnancy. Of course, the cost to do so is astronomical compared to the cost of saving a baby born at term, but then they claim you can't put a price on human life.

And now, in Utah, they've passed what is one of the scariest bills I have ever heard about and it puts all women of child-bearing age in danger of being arrested and charged with murder for having a miscarriage! Yes, you read that right. For having a miscarriage. Now, I know what it feels like emotionally to have a miscarriage. I miscarried my very first pregnancy. And I know the guilt that most women feel when they miscarry. The absolute last thing they need is someone snooping around and asking them questions as to whether they intentionally caused the miscarriage.

The text of the law in Utah reads:

a person commits criminal homicide if the person intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, with criminal negligence, or acting with a mental state otherwise specified in the statute defining the offense, causes the death of another human being, including an unborn child at any stage of its development.

How are they going to know if a pregnant woman goes into a bar and drinks a dozen mixed drinks whether or not she "intended" to induce an abortion? They're going to have to interview her friends, coworkers, etc. to see if she was happy about having the baby or not. If they find one person who says that the woman said anything about wishing she wasn't pregnant (and virtually every pregnant woman wishes that at some point during the pregnancy) and they can essentially charge her with murder! All it takes is a zealous prosecutor looking to make a name for him-/herself and there are going to be women in jail for having miscarriages.

The sponsor of the law makes no bones about his anti-choice agenda. He wants to ban abortions and he doesn't seem to care how many lives of those already living he has to destroy to save the "life" of one unborn fetus who might not, through the fault of no one, survive the birthing process and who may not even be wanted or may end up in an abusive home only to die after a couple years torment at the hands of those who wanted to abort but weren't able to due to laws like this.