(no subject)

[emmagrant01]

twistedchick reports on a bill proposed to the Virginia House that would require women to report miscarriages to the police, or face jail time. In addition, women who have miscarriages or abortions would have a great deal of their personal information sent to the state. Time to break out that letter-writing pen...

ETA: More about the issue on Metafilter and Chez Miscarriage.

And here is a link to the bill itself.

Comments

[jedi-diplomat.livejournal.com]

But...that doesn't even make sense! There's been no crime committed so why would women have to report a miscarriage? That's just plain stupid.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Ah, but if a miscarriage is considered a "death", it's a pretty slippery slope to making abortion "murder", now isn't it?

[jedi-diplomat.livejournal.com]

True, but don't stop there! Any time I use birth control I could be potentially killing a child. But wait! Women can still get their tubes tied or have a hysteretamy (sp??) so we better outlaw those as well. Don't forget the car accidents and everything else, so maybe we should just lock up every woman of childbearing age. That way when men want to have children they can grab the woman that looks the nicest and have sex with her and then 9 months later have a child.

I won't go on from there, because it evolves into a different argument.

[savannahdreamer.livejournal.com]

ah hte joys of polotics /sarcasm. I thinkthe thing thats most terrifying is that your slippery slope argument has the potential to be presented in some form ( probalby not the locking up part, but the abortion as murder? sure) and I LOVE that icon BTW.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

They've been at it for a while now, haven't they? If we don't fight back, they just might succeed, too.

[sabrinagb.livejournal.com]

Let me know who and where to write.

That is absolutely horrid.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

If you click the link above, I think she gives that information. I'm going to write something too, as soon as I have a chance!

[spinfrog.livejournal.com]

Wow! But... if nobody new you were pregnant in the first place... perhaps this will encourage more pregnant women to avoid doctors. Which in turn would preven said doctors from administering dangerous tests, causing undue worry, inducing labor before it's supposed to start....

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, the implications are pretty frightening!

[lupin-spirit.livejournal.com]

.....aside from being intrusive and WRONG, this is also incredibly unrealistic. It is estimated that about 15 to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. But it is also thought that around 50% of all fertilized eggs do not survive, resulting in miscarriage even though the woman may never have been aware she was pregnant.
(stats for U.S.)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

This is taken from a comment on Metafilter, and says it better than anything I could say:

Fetal death at eight months isn't actually a miscarriage. A miscarriage is "the spontaneous termination of a pregnancy before fetal development has reached 20 weeks." Most miscarriages happen before the twelfth week. Miscarriages don't produce "trashcan babies", and a baby born alive isn't a miscarriage. The text of the bill doesn't make any such distinctions, and that makes it even more troublesome. There is existing legislation in VA requiring the reporting of births after 24 weeks, live or stillborn. This is unnecessary and reeks of a hidden agenda.

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

Stupidity knows no boundaries.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Sad, but true.

[liesbyomission.livejournal.com]

I read on this over on libertarianism. That's just plain effed up. I told my mother, who had a miscarriage before she had me, and she said that bill was just ridiculous. "How will anyone know? It just goes down the toilet, anyway."

The only way they'd know is if you went to a doctor about it, but even then, aren't your medical records supposed to be confidential, I thought?

Just plain wrong in so many ways. *sigh*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It's especially ridiculous considering that Virginia law apparently already covers the case of "trashcan babies", which this bill is purportedly about. What miscarriages have to do with a tiny number of women who give birth to otherwise healthy babies and then abandon them, is beyond me.

Which seems to imply that the motive is something else altogether...

a bit off topic but...

[doro-chan.livejournal.com]

as you mentioned abortions as well... a German cardinal compared abortion with Hitler's and Stalin's crimes in yesterday's sermon.

A quote (sorry if my translation is not perfect):

"First Herodes, who let the children of Bethlehem be killed, then, among others, Hitler and Stalin, who destroyed millions of lifes, and today, in our time, millions of unborn children are killed."

So much about modern times... lucky me, I am not religious.

Re: a bit off topic but...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Comparing a woman's difficult choice to terminate her pregnancy to the actions of Hitler and Stalin is simply ridiculous. But then, there are idiots everywhere, aren't there? Fortunately, most people who are religious aren't so ignorant or insensitive.

...*explode*...

[savannahdreamer.livejournal.com]

the anger, it bubbles and boils up inside me... I hate this government so much I am speachless. Pass me the letter writin' pen.

Re: ...*explode*...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*passes big honkin' pen* Go for it!

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Can you give me a hand? I want to write a letter but I can't think of a way to do it without using the words 'bastard' or 'fuck you'

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Heh! I'm having the same trouble myself, actually... :-P

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Oh you know, it was pointed out to me that the America book [the Daily Show one] has a form letter somewhere in it that I might be able to crib off into this. Which would be fun for me on many many levels.

Do you think a hand written letter would work more? I finally went over that list and why in the hell do they need to know if you or your baby has any hispanic origin? Yes, um, Margaret Atwood, can you come help me adjust my red dress?

[ccmom.livejournal.com]

Hey,

Hope it's okay if I take what you've started and pass the word along.

It's been 3 hours now since I first read about this and I'm still having problems thinking clearly. I made my first mistake of going out to tell my husband about it and he just stared at me. Sat in his chair and stared at me like I was crazy. He couldn't understand why I was so upset. I gave up on that.

I have finally calmed down enough to the point where when I think about this I just want to start crying. Everything about this is wrong and there is no justification that could be explained that would ever make it right. I still don't know what to say. So in my efforts to help, I'm doing my part to educate others. Because I can't stop this deep intense feeling of fear and dread when I think about what the future holds for us.

To everyone who's ever felt the heartbreak of a miscarriage, my deepest sympathies. To everyone who's ever made the hard 'choice' of abortion, my deepest sympathies. It's never easy to lose a child regardless of how it happens, and to try to make criminals out of woman because of their loss is just the ultimate crime that could be committed.

Again, I hope it's okay that I'm plagurizing your journal entry, I just couldn't word it better.

Michelle

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

First of all, I can't take credit for starting it; I simply passed on the news from someone else. And I know for a fact that her intention was that as many people spread the word as possible, so please post it elsewhere and pass it on!

Second: yes, absolutely -- I completely share your outrage. The law this bill proposes is not only ridiculous, an invasion of privacy of the worst kind, misogynistic, and utterly unenforceable, it purports to fill a gap (the protection of so-called "trash can" babies) that is already covered by Virginia Law. In other words, it's redundant and pointless.

And that doesn't even touch on my thoughts about the proposer's hidden agenda...

[ladydion.livejournal.com]

I hate the government. I don't live in Virginia, but if by some extreme miracle, it does get passed I almost guarantee it will spread like wild fire to other states, especially southern ones.