More Assaults from Bushworld

From the Website Democracy in Virginia, Via Atrios (http://atrios.blogspot.com/), here's some charming news:

"Legislative Sentry: HB1677 - Have Miscarriage, Go to Jail?"

John Cosgrove (Republican --Big shock there) has a bill up, HB1677, in the Virginia legislature, requiring "any woman who experiences “fetal death” without a doctor’s assistance to report this to the local law-enforcement agency within twelve hours of the miscarriage. Failure to do so is punishable as a Class 1 Misdemeanor."

http://democracyforvirginia.typepad.com/democracy_for_virginia/2005/01/legislative_sen.html

This is as any point in the pregnancy -- ten days along, twenty days along. Miscarry at seven weeks in Virginia, fail to report it within TWELVE HOURS, and you're going to jail for a year.

For those of you who are wondering why Mr. Cosgrove would be doing such a barbaric thing to women who are suffering the pain of a miscarriage -- and anyone who has been through a miscarriage knows how much suffering is involved, especially in, for God's sake, the first hours -- come, now.

What's up here?

He's working with the anti-Choice crowd, of course.

They're not after spontaneous miscarriage at all.

They're after those evil, evil women who would dare to take control of their own bodies and interrupt a viable pregnancy on purpose.

As author of the website says, "Most other states don't even bother collecting data for spontaneous loss of pregnancy before 20 weeks gestation. The CDC does not process this data along with other state data on fetal death. The health care providers I have spoken to see no benefit, since reporting the loss of products of conception to law enforcement authorities provides no benefit to medical science."

"What I have learned, through initial research, is that the legislative agenda of numerous anti-abortion groups includes increased reporting of fetal deaths and issuance of death certificates for miscarriages. The point is to advance the legal recognition of "personhood" for all "products of conception".

"In the 2003 legislative session in Virginia, a law was passed allowing parents to request a “birth certificate” for a stillbirth, a law that is clearly in line with the agenda of anti-abortion extremists to recognize embryonic and fetal personhood. The fact that Virginia is one of the few states that requires reporting of deaths of all “products of conception” regardless of gestational age plays in to this anti-abortion agenda."

"Though there is no practical benefit to the Commonwealth in collecting this information from women - in fact, there would be considerable burden placed on local law enforcement agencies. This bill places the advancement of the cause of recognizing legal "personhood" for all products of conception far above the concerns of the Commonwealth and of the dignity of individual women whose privacy would be violated."

Go read the whole post. The author also has some suggestions for ways to get involved at the bottom. Get involved.

These Leviticans want to change our world. If we don't stop them, they will.

(I'm getting pretty nervous, boy.)