The chance of miscarriage during the first trimester in a woman’s first pregnancy is 40%. Thousands of women miscarry or deliver a stillborn fetus every year. And if it’s early enough in the pregnancy, we don’t even realize it’s happened.
I’m seeing a very disturbing trend lately, where people are referring to the women who miscarry as the "mother" of a "baby" that was "delivered" prematurely and it’s got me scared. Scared that – through redefining a fetus – the anti-choice crowd are succeeding in moving that Overton window over to the right to where we’ll soon find that life as we know it will indeed be thought (under law) to begin at conception – thereby destroying our right to choose.
They've gone from using language to redefine themselves not at pro-control but pro-life, and now they're using it to redefine when life actually begins by calling a fetus a baby in our laws, & I don’t hear anyone talking about this frightening trend.
Make the jump...
An article on AlterNet talks about the frightening move to force states to issue death certificates to stillborn fetuses...
A new movement seeks to award special certificates to fetuses that are stillborn, but pro-choice advocates worry that this is yet another step toward fetal personhood that could endanger abortion rights.
Thirteen years ago, Joanne Cacciatore delivered a stillborn fetus, a trauma that was compounded by the fact that she received a death certificate in the mail but no birth certificate -- a tangible memento she said would have helped her grieve.
Motivated by her loss, she mounted a grassroots campaign in her home state of Arizona to get the government to give parents who deliver stillborn fetuses the option of receiving a "certificate for stillborn birth" -- and in so doing unintentionally waded into the turbulent waters of abortion politics.
snip
Abortion-rights opponents have not taken up the cause of stillborn birth certificates en masse, Cacciatore said. But pro-choice groups worry that Cacciatore's movement to enact what she calls "Missing Angels" laws, which would grant fetuses that die before they are born certificates of stillbirth, will push anti-choice groups one step further in their quest to make abortion tantamount to murder.
On average, there are more than 25,000 stillbirths a year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics in Atlanta, Ga.
NOW has not taken an official stand on the issue. But Gandy said the organization has urged local women's rights activists to oppose legislation that doesn't include language guaranteeing that certificates of stillborn birth will only be issued to fetuses that die as a result of a naturally occurring intrauterine death after the 20th week of pregnancy. NOW also stipulates that certificates must only be issued only to parents who request them.
snip
In 2002, the Bush administration expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program to include embryos and fetuses, a move that for the first time made them separate beneficiaries of a government program, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights advocacy group.
And in 2004, Congress passed and Bush signed the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act," a law that made it a separate federal crime to harm an embryo or fetus, giving them rights apart from the mothers. The law passed in the wake of the 2002 death of Laci Peterson, a California woman who was 8 months pregnant when she was murdered by her husband.
Some of you may have caught the recent news out of Ocean City Maryland, where the remains of four fetuses were found in a woman’s home and yard. From an Associated Press article today...
The state medical examiner's preliminary report on the newborn found under the sink determined it was a boy in about the 26th week of pregnancy, and medical examiners "believe the child was stillborn," a release from police said. But the investigation was still under way into both the cause of that death and whether all four dead infants were related to Freeman.
The medical examiner believes the fetus was stillborn - that's an important fact to note. But the state is pressing murder charges - read on...
According to prosecutors, Godman said he found his girlfriend bleeding in the bathroom last Thursday. When rescuers arrived, Freeman told them she was not and had not recently been pregnant, according to prosecutors.
Later, however, she told police she had delivered a deformed baby and had flushed the remains down the toilet. According to prosecutors, though, the baby was viable, with hands, feet and facial features. A 2005 Maryland law allows murder charges against someone who causes the death of a fetus considered viable.
Worcester County state's attorney Joel Todd said the state will use that statute to pursue the murder charges.
"We will have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she did something to cause that baby to be stillborn," Todd said Monday.
snip
Prosecutors also would not say how far along the other three infants were when they died, although none was thought to be a full-term baby.
I’ve been avoiding the news over the last two days because this seems to be all they talk about. I’d hear the newsreaders introduce the story and would immediately reach for the remote but I caught enough to understand how they’re reporting this story – and they’ve got it all wrong IMHO. It all comes down to language and how they define those fetuses. They found four pre-term fetuses and yet the AP writer refers to them as infants and babies, and goes on to write that the authorities don’t know how much time had elapsed between the time of the miscarriage and when they "died" (assuming they were viable in the first place). This mother of four living children is being charged with murder and manslaughter and if they can prove that the more developed fetus took even one breath after she miscarried, she’ll be in serious trouble.
I have to wonder what might have happened if she’d miscarried that 26 week old fetus in a hospital. If it was clear that extraordinary steps were required to keep it alive, (and as it’s reported – it was deformed or had serious birth defects) and she chose to not have her fetus hooked up to all kinds of tubes etc but instead to let nature take it’s course, what would the law have told them to do (if anything)? Unfortunately, this is all undocumented because she miscarried in her home without any witnesses.
This is the stuff of some Law & Order type tv show. For her though – this is real and it’s got to be terrifying. But this seems like a serious rush to judgment – they filed murder charges against her before the medical examiners report was even complete.
This woman needs help not jail. I mean if someone buries or stores a fetus in their home I would think it’s a cry for help – she needs a psychiatrist not a jail cell. But I fear this community will use her to set an example in their twisted effort to redefine life and destroy our right to self-determination when it comes to our reproductive freedoms.
This stuff is creeping into our laws and I fear this may totally erode our right to choose. It’s vital that we stay informed and work to support the groups that are leading the fight against anti-choice groups in their attempt to redefine life and personhood.
Planned Parenthood
NARAL
Abortion Access Project
ACLU
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
Center for Reproductive Health EDucation In Family Medicine
Center for Reproductive Rights
Guttmacher Institute
NOW
Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health
Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project WRRAP raises money for low income women of all ages, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds who are unable to pay for either emergency contraception or a safe and legal abortion.
UPDATE
Hat tip to ChoiceJoyce for the link to another advocacy group...
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
UPDATE #2
Someone mentioned below that the State's Attorney for Worcester County MD - Joel Todd - is already talking about seeking the death penalty. Before the medical examiner's report is final. Before it can be determined whether the bruises on the woman's body were the result of abuse an an attempt to force the stillbirth, or before he has all the facts
This woman needs help - not a jail cell.
THIS IS NOW AN ACTION DIARY FOLKS!
I want you to do two things.
First - Rec this discussion up so others see it.
Second - call that son of a bitch in the state's attorney's office and tell him what you think of his rush to judgment and his push for the death penalty in this tragic case (but remember to be nice when you call).
Here's his contact information...
Web-site
Email - worsatty@sailorsite.net
Phone Number -
(410) 632-2166 (Circuit Court)
(410) 723-6950 (District Court)
Fax -
(410) 632-3250 (Circuit Court)
(410)-723-6953 (District Court)
UPDATE 3
Keschen posted a great diary on the fetal protection laws HERE. I got curious about Marylands own statute and found a link to an unofficial copy of House Bill 398 (from the 2005 session - under (blech!) Gov. Ehrlich).
What gets me is that there seems to be a provision in this bill that prohibits the state from seeking the death penalty under this statute. So - assuming this is the law Todd was talking about - if they're charging her with murder the death penalty shouldn't come in to play here.