I'm usually soft-spoken about politics, although anyone who knows me well must surely recognize I do indeed have opinions. Rather emphatic ones. But
this calls for comment.
The Utah legislature has passed a bill criminalizing pregnant women who have miscarriages. The bill was aimed at punishing women who seek illegal abortions, but that's not what it says. Any pregnant woman who engages in "reckless" behavior and then loses her pregnancy can now be charged with homicide.
First of all, this is medical nonsense. Somewhere around 30% of all conceptions spontaneously abort. (We used to think the figure was lower because many of these terminate so early, they don't cause a missed menstrual period, but modern testing has revealed a higher percentage.) Sometimes, we can determine a cause, but most of the time,
we can't. This bill opens the door to prosecuting any woman who behaves in a way some prosecutor (or husband or parents or the Bible-thumping lady next door) disapprove of. Again, that's not what it was intended to do but it's what it says. And that means someone some time is going to use it that way.
Notice I say "pregnancy," not "fetus" or "baby." That's because many of these early spontaneous abortions (which is the proper medical terminology for miscarriage) are not and can never become a baby. Something goes wrong, either with the ovum or sperm, or in the early stages of cell division, rendering them inviable.
Who gets to define "reckless behavior"? Does it include running on the beach? Sky-diving? Smoking? Having sex? Having an orgasm without intercourse? Doing inverted yoga postures? Talking on a cellphone? Drinking alcohol? Driving on a freeway? Remaining with an abusive spouse? (The Utah Democrats tried to put in an exception for the last, but the bill passed unchanged to the governor's desk.)
Most women who know they are pregnant and then miscarry experience a tremendous sense of loss. I know. I had four miscarriages in a row. I grieved for each one. I agonized over whether I could have prevented them. It's unbelievably insensitive -- brutal -- for some government to say
I caused it. That's something I think every woman who's had a miscarriage wonders and the answer is NO YOU DID NOT. So now Utah proposes to prosecute women for something they DID NOT DO.
I hold out small hope that Gov. Gary Herbert will have the common sense to refuse to sign it.
