Utah is not exactly a state known to make rational legislative decisions. From proposing to honor gun manufacturers on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to considering the elimination of the 12th grade to cut back on education spending, they have now passed a law that would open women who’ve suffered a miscarriage to possible criminal prosecution and life imprisonment.
The proposed bill, now law, was spearheaded by Rep. Carl Wimmer. According to Newsvine, while the main force of this law is “to enable prosecutors in the majority-Mormon state to pursue women who seek illegal, unsupervised forms of abortion, it includes a provision that could trigger murder charges against women found guilty of an ‘intentional, knowing or reckless act’ that leads to a miscarriage. Some say this could include drinking one glass of wine too many, walking on an icy pavement or skiing.”
Walking on icy pavement while pregnant might result in a charge for murder? Sounds rather misogynistic. What if there was no clear pavement?
The law was proposed in response to the case of a 17-year-old pregnant Utah woman who paid a man $150 dollars to assault her physically. Her hope was that the beating would cause her to miscarry. The state still should not go as far as to punish all women for the stupidity of one. And even then, how does a beating even compare to skiing, or walking on icy pavement?
This threatens basic freedoms of women. And for gay and lesbian couples, and couples who have someone else carry their baby, this threatens their chance to even have a child because that women’s behavior may be seen as risky. More so, the Baby Center Web site shows that 15 to 20 percent of recognized pregnancies end in a miscarriage. Why should those women have the stress of being potentially criminally liable for murder in addition to dealing with a loss of a child?
American Civil Liberties Union’s Utah branch commented that, “[a] woman who fails to wear a seatbelt and is in a car accident could be charged with reckless homicide, should she miscarry. Likewise, a woman who has a substance abuse problem is likely to forego necessary prenatal care out of fear that she could be prosecuted for ‘knowing’ or ‘reckless’ homicide by continuing to use illegal substances while pregnant.”
And it gets worse.
According to the Amplify Your Voice organization, this could lead to unfair legal prosecution for women in abusive relationships, for example if a women didn’t leave their abusive partner, even despite an inability to do so. Another loophole that could cause an issue is the possible ramifications to abortion law. It is possible a woman who had a legal abortion could be prosecuted for criminal homicide, if the doctor doesn’t use exact procedures found in the law.
They make it sound as if those things are easy to do. Some women can never escape an abusive relationship. And what about the men who are in abusive relationships? Shouldn’t they be prosecuted for something too if they did not leave their partner? It would only be fair.
For a law that is trying to discourage illegal abortion, it will only make it more underground. The women who participated in underground abortions before, because they could not afford legal medical abortion, will now be joined with women who will seek underground abortion in the fear of being charged with murder.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed this bill into law on March 8. This will not make abortion go away just because women can now be criminally charged. It will make the entire situation in Utah more dangerous, putting more women at risk.