If Cathrynn Brown (R-NM) has her way sexual assault victims who seek an abortion could be charged with a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.
HB206 reads in part:
Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.
So if Ms. Brown has her way not only should a woman, or fourteen-year-old child for that matter, be forced to bear a child that was conceived through assault but having a medical procedure to end that pregnancy could land a woman in jail. (I’m at least hopeful that minors wouldn’t get any jail time but I’m still an optimist sometimes.)
I get that there are people who are, I’m never sure of the correct term these days, “forced birth” or “anti-abortion.” I get that there are moral reasons for some to oppose what I consider a right to choose. But here’s my thing: don’t have an abortion if you don’t want one. It is that simple. But what a woman and her doctor choose is none of our business unless we are invited into that decision-making process.
I have a friend (I really do!) who, along with his wife, has been trying to have a child. After several miscarriages she finally appeared to have a viable fetus. Actually, she had two. And because of the age of my friend and his wife they had tests run and one of the fetuses (baby A) was determined to have severe disabilities so my friend and his wife decided to have a reduction. Would I have made the same choice? I don’t know and it really doesn’t matter. Because it isn’t my life or my decision. Do I have an opinion on their decision? Yep. Doesn’t matter. Because it isn’t my life or my decision. I certainly have not changed my opinion of either person, though.
Meanwhile the same people screeching about “small government” and “freedom” are the same ones all up in a woman’s business, almost literally.
Happy Birthday, Roe v Wade … what’s left of you.
Update:
SANTA FE – State Rep. Cathrynn Brown, sponsor of an anti-abortion bill that she called poorly written, said her intent was not to charge rape victims with a felony if they terminated their pregnancy.
Brown, R-Carlsbad, said her bill was badly drafted and that she did not catch the language problems when reviewing it. “I missed this one,” she said Thursday. http://www.currentargus.com/ci…
It says alot about the state of the GOP that at this point I’m not inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.
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