That Utah Feticide Bill: An Overview

[gehayi]

A number of people on my friends-list have been posting, for the past few days about a bill passed by the Utah legislature and currently awaiting signature by the governor that effectively criminalizes miscarriage, thanks to some non-defined terms.

The bill was crafted after a seventeen-year-old girl in Utah paid a twenty-one-year-old man $150.00

Comments

[honorh]

As someone who's basically pro-life, I think this bill is a horrible idea. It's badly written, as you've pointed out, vague enough that almost any woman could be charged, even if she wants the baby and is taking care of herself. One single misjudgment or mistake is all it would take.

What you say about this being tied in with the "God's favor" idea is very true as well. Mormonism is very much a works-based religion. Do the right thing and good things will happen to you. Fail to please God, and you're in trouble. So the idea that Good Women won't lose babies, but Bad Women will--it's entirely plausible. That's what makes this so scary.

[gehayi]

My own mother could be charged under this bill; she had two miscarriages before she had me. And family rumor says (though my birth certificate contradicts this) that I'm a surviving twin.

What you say about this being tied in with the "God's favor" idea is very true as well. Mormonism is very much a works-based religion. Do the right thing and good things will happen to you. Fail to please God, and you're in trouble. So the idea that Good Women won't lose babies, but Bad Women will--it's entirely plausible. That's what makes this so scary.Also, Mormon culture virtually idolizes childbearing...to the point where it's supposed to be the perfect afterlife. If a woman goes to heaven, her best-case scenario is bearing millions upon millions of "spiritual children" to populate the worlds her husband will rule over after he dies and becomes a god

[erastes]

Have no idea what Utah's law process is like but over here, concepts of recklessness and duty of care and negligence are provided by case law(precedent) and not by statute--makes sense because statutues take too long to change. I assume that these concepts are set out the same way there, but as I say, I don't know. Fetus law here is hugely complicated because of course the fetus has no rights of its own.

[gehayi]

It's definitely different over here. Terms like recklessness and duty of care and negligence are defined in each state's code of law. The definitions tend to vary from state to state. And it's common practice to provide definitions of terms in each bill, or citations to the part of the code that applies, so as to show what the law affects and how it's likely to be interpreted.

[gehayi]

I doubt it would change anything. From what I've heard, there is MASSIVE support for this bill.

I've also heard that Utah's legislature tends toward nuttiness in general. For example, this year state senator Mark Madsen wanted to create a holiday honoring the founder of the Browning Arms company...on Martin Luther King Day. Another state senator, Chris Butters, wants to abolish twelfth grade from Utah high schools in order to save money. And then there was Representative Craig Frank--one of the co-sponsors of this bill--who last year wanted to tax anything containing caffeine...which, basically, would have been a special tax on non-Mormon people, since Mormons are forbidden to consume coffee or tea, and some have extended that ban to any caffeinated beverage.

So...yeah. Not the most rational of legislatures, no matter who you're talking about.

[gehayi]

It's Butters' contention that kids don't do anything in senior year except play sports, participate in extracurricular activities and just goof off. He honestly thinks it has no value. Therefore, he proposes giving kids the option of ending high school in their junior year, which he figures most kids would do

[redcoast]

Oh, Utah.

[gehayi]

I know. Much of the legislature seems eager to dive off the deep end.

I'm very much afraid of the slippery slope that could occur if this bill passes...and the influence it will have on other states, both in terms of statutory and judicial law.

[redcoast]

I would hope that the experience in Iowa would illustrate the problems with this kind of law to legislators. I'm not opposed to feticide laws in general, but this is crazy; this would almost entail a criminal investigation into almost every miscarriage.

[gehayi]

Thank you. I don't know if this post will help in any way, but I hope it does.