Life Imitates Art, and Not in a Good Way

Charles Coleman Finlay had a story up on Futurismic last year in which not only abortion, but miscarriage, is a crime: "Your Life Sentence."

And damned if some nutty state representative in Georgia hasn't introduced a bill requiring investigation of all miscarriages. This law not only out-and-out prohibits abortion as "prenatal murder," it intends for authorities to make absolutely certain that any miscarriages occurred through no fault of the woman in question. I'm sure any indication that the woman had been drinking or smoked any dope would be enough to charge her with a crime, and it doesn't take any imagination at all to figure out just how far this would go. (Skip your vitamins? Exercise too vigorous? Engage in too much sex while pregnant?)

I found this proposed law so unbelievable when I read the post about it on Daily Kos that I actually read the damn bill itself just to be sure. I note as an insight into this man's mind that the bill only uses the term miscarriage once and puts it in quote marks. The actual words he uses are "spontaneous fetal death."

The law is reprehensible on abortion rights; just stopping right there it's completely extreme and blatantly unconstitutional. And it's not likely to pass; it's just red meat rhetoric. It's not even the most unusual; the proposal in South Dakota that would allow justifiable homicide as a defense to killing a doctor who performs abortion probably takes the cake for that.

But less extreme bills are passing every day. There's an ongoing assault on women by the people Vonda N. McIntyre calls the "Compulsory Pregnancy" brigade. That term really nails it, because given that they're also opposed to contraception and sex education, compulsory pregnancy for any woman who has sex is exactly what they have in mind.

This battle ought to be over. But a look at the Congressional Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood demonstrates just how bad the situation is.

I saw a note from Charlie Finlay on Facebook in which he observed that a lot of US publications rejected his story because they found it "unrealistic." Oh, I wish it were.

Raging Maniacs in Oklahoma Prevail over Governor's Veto

The State of Oklahoma has just enacted some horrific legislation that if allowed to stand will make life harder and meaner for women of childbearing age.

This is from AFP's report:

Oklahoma lawmakers overrode their governor's veto Tuesday to enact tough abortion laws that force women to undergo invasive ultrasounds and allow doctors to withhold test results showing fetal defects.

Even women who are victims of rape or incest will be required to listen to a detailed description of the fetus and view the ultrasound image prior to terminating a pregnancy.

They will also likely be required to undergo vaginal rather than abdominal ultrasounds as doctors are required to use the method that "would display the embryo or fetus more clearly."

The second bill shields doctors from "wrongful birth" malpractice lawsuits brought by parents who would have aborted a fetus had they been informed about its genetic or other defects.

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of the ultrasound law, which it said "profoundly intrudes upon a patient's privacy."

A similar Oklahoma law was struck down last year.

"Politicians have no business making medical decisions," said Stephanie Toti, a staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights.

"Another round in the courts won't change our strong constitutional claims against the law, it will only waste more of Oklahoma taxpayers' time and money."

Democratic Governor Brad Henry tried to block the bills last week, but the Republican-dominated Oklahoma legislature overwhelmingly overrode his veto with the help of Democrats.

Henry said that while he supports "reasonable" restrictions on abortions, the laws had serious constitutional flaws and represented an excessive intrusion of government into the private lives of its citizens.

"It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform a pregnant woman in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on his patient," the governor said in his veto message.

"State policymakers should never mandate that a citizen be forced to undergo any medical procedure against his or her will, especially when such a procedure could cause physical or mental trauma," he added.

Abortion foes hailed the veto overrides as a victory for the unborn.

But that's not all. They've also enacted the requirement that any woman seeking an abortion report on her marital status, education, miscarriages, previous abortions, method of abortion, reason for the abortion, and method of payment, which is then to be posted on the Internet for all the world to see (and presumably anti-abortion fanatics to harass). [ETA: As Nancy Jane Moore notes in the comments, the legislature hasn't yet overturned the governor's veto on this measure.] Here's the Tulsa World's description of it:

House Bill 3284, by Rep. Pam Peterson, R-Tulsa, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, requires women seeking an abortion to report a host of information about themselves to be displayed statistically on a website run by the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Information to be reported by the woman includes: marital status; education; miscarriages; abortions; method of abortion; reason for the abortion; and method of payment.

Jolley said the information is needed to help policy makers determine how to prevent abortions. Wilson said the measure is a way to intimidate women so they won't get an abortion.

Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, called the measure a "gross invasion of privacy," adding that it was an intrusion into the relationship between a woman and her doctor.

These guys are seriously warped. It's all a waste of money, since presumably just about any court would throw these laws out as unconstitutional. But I suppose making women and civil liberties groups spend money contesting insane laws is a primary purpose of the exercise.

ETA: A video by Newsy's Multisource Video News Analysis can be seen here.

Sometimes, just sometimes, reason prevails

PUBLICATION OF REPORT: SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS RELATING TO THE ABORTION ACT 1967 by the UK Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee: full text of the press release can be found here. However, whether these conclusions will get embodied in legislative change remains to be seen.

A piece of self-promotion: Historical evidence on the Abortion Act 1967: Evidence submitted to the Science and Technology Committee inquiry into the Abortion Act 1967 by Lesley A. Hall of the Wellcome Library is now available as a downloadable pdf from the History and Policy site news page.