Virginia's proposed law: Have a Miscarriage, Go to JAIL?

[pegkerr]

You've probably heard about this on your friends page already, but if you haven't, you should. The proposed bill would require Virginia women who suffer a miscarriage to report it within twelve hours to the police, and answer a bunch of impertinent questions, or risk going to jail. Class 1 misdemeanor, same as arson, statutory rape, stalking and providing alcohol to minors. Regardless of gestational age, mind you. I have a hard time believing this pinhead idea would actually pass, but then Virginia is the state which just passed a law which basically makes it illegal for gay partners to attempt to create documents and contracts to protect their partnership, and in fact interferes with gay couples doing estate planning, planning for medical emergency and holding joint real estate.

Every time I think that the Right has reached the limit of what they're capable of doing to people and that it can't possibly get any worse, by golly, they surprise me.

I gotta think this can't possibly pass. But a lot of laws have hit the books in the last year that I thought couldn't have possibly passed. The fact alone it's even being considered is appalling.

Gacked from matociquala, rolanni and probably a bunch of others.

Comments

I read this wrong...

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

...I thought you titled this "Have a Marriage, Go To JAIL?"

Took a look at the comments on matociquala's* site, noticed both the references to _Handmaid's_ _Tale_ (gotta tell my sister about that), and
comments about how common it is to miscarry. One of the big secrets in my family was that my mother had at least two miscarriages.

(* gads, I wish I knew how to make those linky things. Anybody want to explain it to me?)

Re: I read this wrong...

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Sure!

Look here for more details, but to name a specific person, just say < lj user="exampleusername">, only without the space, and with the specific person's name there.

pegkerr, for example.

I dunno if you know HTML, but linking so you can say stuff about what the person says is also kind of fun. F'r example, < A HREF="http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75> This here thing says...

(And so on.)

Re: I read this wrong...

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Though I'd be much more successful if I FOLLOWED THE RULE I JUST SET FORTH.

Sheesh.

pegkerr, dammit.

Re: I read this wrong...

[lkw18.livejournal.com]

...I thought you titled this "Have a Marriage, go to JAIL?".

Hey, it's Virginia we're talking about. It wouldn't shock me if that had been the title. Nothing seems too sinister for Virginians.

Just took a look at the proposed law

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Found section "D" interesting

D. When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother _woman_*at or after the delivery or abortion or when inquiry or investigation by a medical examiner is required, the medical examiner shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall complete and sign the medical certification portion of the fetal death report within twenty-four 24 hours after being notified of a fetal death.

Why the change from "mother" to "woman"?? I mean there might be a legitimate reason, but I can't think of one.

(*italicized in the original)

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

All that this will do is deter women who might be most at risk for miscarriages from getting early pre-natal care to help avoid miscarriages. It is a ridiculous Catch-22 and will lead to more fetal deaths. What on earth are they trying to accomplish with this? If they think they are going to trap women who are self-aborting they are sadly mistaken.

[dreamcoat-mom.livejournal.com]

Good Lord, that's terrifying! They can't possibly be serious. And Barb's right - all this will do is keep at-risk mothers from seeking prenatal medical care. How can we possibly let these guys stay in charge?

It's one guy

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Last I heard, there's one (count them: one) legislator behind this bill. It remains to be seen whether anyone else in Virginia's government is whacko enough to support it.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

It's totally appalling, and shows very little understanding of pregnancy and miscarriage. Does this guy realize how common it is?

Also, if a woman's period is more than x number of weeks late, does that count? At eight weeks, especially if her periods are irregular, a woman might not even know she's pregnant. And can she prove she didn't even have sex during that time? Having just completed perimenopause, I know a lot about periods being late! I went eight months between periods once, and there was *no* chance of pregnancy there, believe me.

The Daily Kos has the text of the bill here. It includes this list of questions the woman is supposed to answer (and remember, this is within 12 hours of the miscarriage):

# place of occurrence
# usual residence of patient (mother)
# full maiden name of patient
# medical record number and social security number of patient
# Hispanic origin, if any, and race of patient
# age of patient
# education of patient
# sex of fetus
# patient married to father
# previous deliveries to patient
# single or plural delivery and order of plural delivery
# date of delivery
# date of last normal menses and physician's estimate of gestation
# weight of fetus in grams
# month of pregnancy care began (sic)
# number of prenatal visits
# when fetus died
# congenital malformations, if any
# events of labor and delivery
# medical history for this pregnancy
# other history for this pregnancy
# obstetric procedures and method of delivery
# autopsy
# medical certification of cause of spontaneous fetal death
# signature of attending physician or medical examiner including title, address and date signed
# method of disposal of fetus
# signature and address of funeral director or hospital representative
# date received by registrar
# registrar's signature
# registration area and report numbers

Even if this very stupid bill does pass, which seems unlikely to me, I think the courts will be quick to invalidate it!

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Considering that in my genetic counseling class (albeit, ten years ago) we were told that approximately 50% of all pregnancies end in "spontaneous abortion" before the third month (although most women don't even know that they're pregnant when it happens), this bill would swamp already overworked police agencies. As well as just flat being evil.

But this is Virginia we're talking about, home of the eugenics movement, first in the country to enact and enforce involuntary sterilization laws, and where the Nazis studied to get ideas for their own Reich.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I want to hear what the police in Virginia think about this. Is the state so crime-free that law enforcement officers have plenty of time to take all these reports? Yeah, right.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Cosgrove apparently claims that the Chesapeake police department asked for this bill.

Suuuuure they did. As if they don't have enough to do already.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm sure it's the kind of thing that keeps police captains awake in bed at night, ya know? "My god, to really Protect And Serve, we gotta keep track of women's miscarriages, don't we?"

Oy. The stupidity.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Then maybe the Chesapeake police department can send some of their clearly excess funding up to Minneapolis, where at times we have whole districts without a single patrol car, because of budget cuts. But I suspect that most police departments are in the same budget situation.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

According to him, they asked for it in cases of, like, full term pregnancy, where the mother just up and abandons her baby. (This is frequent? Yikes.)

Be nice if he'd /written the bill that way/.

Situation still has to be monitored.

[elfundeb.livejournal.com]

I doubt this bill is going anywhere (12 hours? Who are they kidding?), but as it's Virginia, and I do live here, I'll keep an eye on it. I've signed up for updates.

Though I'm sure there are some people in Virginia who would be happy to criminalize all those women out there having secret miscarriages. After all, it's a denial of our primary role in life, right?

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely revolting and disgusting they would make a bill like this.

I posted this in my own blog awhile back...but it is parallel to the proposed bill

[vonrosen.livejournal.com]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3971127.stm