Utah Punishes Failed Mothers
Is a miscarriage murder? In Utah, they aren’t quite going that far, but they do want to punish women who “recklessly” miscarry. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
The Utah Senate has joined the House in allowing homicide charges against expectant mothers who arrange illegal abortions.
The bill responds to a case in which a Vernal woman allegedly paid a man $150 to beat her and cause miscarriage but could not be charged. The Senate on Thursday approved HB12 on a vote of 24-4, criminalizing a woman’s “intentional, knowing, or reckless act” leading to a pregnancy’s illegal termination. It specifies that a woman cannot be prosecuted for arranging a legal abortion.
The bill awaits the Governor’s signature.
How do you say “overbroad” in language a Ute would understand?
It seems to me that applying a recklessness standard to prenatal care is Utah’s way of saying “If you are pregnant, you best be barefoot.”
So, what might the Utah law penalize?
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The blog Reality Check puts the Utah proposal in perspective:
In addition to criminalizing an intentional attempt to induce a miscarriage or abortion, the bill also creates a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by “reckless” behavior.
Using the legal standard of “reckless behavior” all a district attorney needs to show is that a woman behaved in a manner that is thought to cause miscarriage, even if she didn’t intend to lose the pregnancy. Drink too much alcohol and have a miscarriage? Under the new law such actions could be cause for prosecution.
“This creates a law that makes any pregnant woman who has a miscarriage potentially criminally liable for murder,” says Missy Bird, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Utah. Bird says there are no exemptions in the bill for victims of domestic violence or for those who are substance abusers. The standard is so broad, Bird says, “there nothing in the bill to exempt a woman for not wearing her seatbelt who got into a car accident.”
Would it be reckless for a Utah woman to work 2,800 hours a year at a law firm? When we ran our lawyer health survey a few months ago, a surprising amount of women noted that that their demanding and stressful jobs led to miscarriages.
And the Utah law seeks to criminalize maternal behavior from conception on, not just in the third trimester.
The bill’s sponsor displays a poor understanding of the ramifications of her own law:
But the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the bill doesn’t target victims at all — only those who arrange to terminate their pregnancies illegally.
“I know it’s well-intentioned,” Dayton said of the attempt to lift “reckless acts” from the bill, “but I don’t think we want to go down the road of carefully defining the behavior of a woman.”
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Does this state senator not understand that by leaving in “reckless acts” her law precisely goes down the road of carefully defining the behavior of a woman? Or is she just being willfully ignorant of how her law regulates personal behavior?
Look, hiring a man to beat the life out of your fetus is morally reprehensible. But legislative sexism is just as reprehensible. Women are not baby incubators.
If the Utah legislature really cares so much about helping pregnant women, I hope to God that free, universal prenatal care is next up on their legislative agenda.
Measure on illegal abortions heads to governor [Salt Lake Tribune]
Utah Bill Criminalizes Miscarriage [RH Reality Check]
Earlier: ‘Being A Lawyer Makes Me Sick’