Newsflash: Miscarriage a Crime?!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/utah-abortion-bill-punishing-miscarriages-preventing-crime/story?id=9955517

My newsflash will discuss a recent legislation in Utah that was passed this past month, which institutes new restrictions on the rights of a pregnant woman. This bill that was passed attempts to further restrict a women’s right to choice, also opens up a controversial loophole which makes it possible for women to be charged with murder in the event of a miscarriage.
Before I discuss this matter though, I am compelled to address the impacts of the monumental health care reform bill that was passed just hours ago. This bill certainly seems to promote progressiveness in this nation’s health care system. Unfortunately, Democrats that were desperate enough to ensure this reform passing have riddled the bill with earmarks and stipulations to try to gain the support of more moderate members of Congress. As a result, women’s health care has been marginalized; the bill includes amendments, which limit the right to reproductive health care, including (but not limited to) abortion services. So although this legislation is a promising victory to improve our nation’s problematic health care system, it also marks a sad and largely silent loss suffered by the pro-choice movement.
Now back to the Utah legislation. Just weeks ago, in early March, Utah passed a controversial abortion bill that was intended to prevent planned assault on a fetus, but has now open the door for a woman to be charged with murder if their own behavior causes a miscarriage. The implications of this law may produce extremely backward and negative outcomes, allowing a sentence of 15 years to life in prison if a woman’s “reckless behavior” causes her unborn child to die.
This means in the state of Utah prosecutors could seek murder convictions… and anywhere from 15 years to life in prison… against women who miscarry after not wearing their seatbelts or for returning to a partner who has a history of physical abuse. This is truly upsetting, and many discussions of this Utah legislation have related the state’s government to that of the Taliban.
This bill was passed in response to a recent event involving a 17-year-old pregnant girl in Utah. After her boyfriend threatened to leave her if she carried her pregnancy to full-term, the young girl paid a man $150 to beat her up in hopes of inducing a miscarriage. The Utah legislation is severely misguided in their attempts to promote “a culture of life”. First of all, the girl’s act was obviously done is irrational desperation. To knowingly inflict pain on herself proves her distressed and tragic circumstances, it is foolish to think that someone in that mental state would consider the law’s penalty in their situation. Furthermore, this girl was essentially a child, impregnated at 16 years old. By Utah state law, she could not even have an abortion if she wanted to without parental consent. How then can we punish her for taking matters and her body into her own hands (even if she is using a very distorted and misguided method).
This law in Utah was written so broadly following this event that it allows for a woman in ANY trimester of her pregnancy to be subject to a murder trial if her baby does not survive the full 9 months. It simply states that any reckless behavior during the time of her pregnancy is grounds for arrest. And it is the arresting officer that has the right to make the judgment about what constitutes “reckless”. The part that is really ridiculous to me is the circumstance of returning to an abusive partner. It is truly appalling that a woman who suffer beatings from a violent partner (but does not or in unable to leave him) can be punished by this new law. This shows that in Utah, time, energy and government funding is not put into programs to stop violence against women, but instead used to criminalize pregnant women for any mistakes, accidental or otherwise, that would cause a miscarriage.
Historically, opponents of Roe v. Wade and other pro-choice legislation have always directed their political sentiments against the doctors who perform abortions, more so than the women who ask for them. Now the tables have turned, and many pro-lifers are revealing their hatred and disrespect toward any woman who does not carry a pregnancy to full-term. This is truly a tragic turn of events, and unfortunately this “anti-pregnant woman” trend is occurring elsewhere in the country. This article mentions a few other cases that have placed restrictions or discriminated against pregnant women. One in which an Iowa woman was jailed after falling down the stairs (accidentally!) on suspicion she was trying to kill her fetus. Another event, which charged a Mississippi woman for murder when she refused to have a C-section and then her baby was stillborn. And still another when a woman, whose life was put in danger from an ectopic pregnancy (outside the uterus, where the fetus has chance of survival), was denied an abortion at a Catholic hospital because the fetus still had a heartbeat.
These events and the Utah legislation were truly shocking and upsetting to me. I feel lucky enough to live in a part of the country that largely respects a woman and the decisions she makes about her body, however, this is a sobering reminder that not all women have the freedom to make choices about their bodies and pregnancies. In fact, in Utah a woman does not even have the freedom to act “recklessly” (whatever that means) for fear that she could be jailed for murder. A Utah senator, who seemingly understood the injustice of the legislation after it passed, was quoted saying, “We all make reckless choices in our lives and most of them do not come with criminal burdens. This one does.”