They do this every session in the state legislature here in Georgia. Someone introduces a bill that would make abortion a criminal act. And, yes, this year is no exception. This year's legislation was introduced by House Republican Bobby Franklin ( [ the same guy ]who wants rape victims to be called "accusers"). Franklin is one of the more, ahem, colorful members of the legislature, bless his heart. According to him, SCOTUS had no right to rule on abortion and thus GA can do whatever it damned well pleases. Oh, and you'd better be able to prove your miscarriage was natural or face felony charges/.
Link to the bill. I wish I could cut and paste, but for some reason I can't.
Franklin's H1 basically says that GA has a duty to protect all innocent life from the moment of conception until natural death (yet he also proposed a bill last session that would forbid the CDC from requiring mandatory flu vaccinations in a pandemic; apparently preventing massive deaths from a pandemic don't come under the heading of protecting life). He announces that we all know life begins at conception, and that abortion is "prenatal homicide". Furthermore, he states that a fetus is (or should be) a person under GA law, and thus entitled to equal protection under the law (yet gay adults shouldn't be allowed to marry, according to Representative Franklin, under that same equal protection clause in the GA constitution).
But not content with ignoring federal law on t he matter, he proceeds to take on the SCOTUS and Roe v. Wade. Just because SCOTUS can't define when life begins, doesn't mean that GA can't,s since we all know it begins at conception. Because some idiot like him, who graduated from a damned Bible college and who isn't a lawyer, obviously knows more about constitutional law than the Supreme Court. According to he esteemed but not terribly smart Mr. Franklin, the federal government is only allowed to handle five crimes--and murder isn't one of them (yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds). Since abortion is murder of a "pre-natal human being" GA can and will criminalize it.
According to this law, any human intervention other than delivering a living fetus is a crime. Every physician must make an equal effort to save the life of mother and fetus, but if the fetus does die after such an effort, it isn't a crime. It allows an exception for spontaneous abortion AKA miscarriage--but only if there is no human intervention involved.
That banging sound you hear is me beating my head against the stone wall of sheer stupidity.
It goes on to state that any attempt to remove a fetus from the mother except to facilitate a live birth is murder. The doctor MUST do everything to save the life of both fetus and mother, but if the fetus doesn't survive despite this, it's not a crime. Abortion is now a form of murder.
I can see so many issues with this bill.
There are situations where you can't save the life of both fetus and mother.
* What if the woman learns that she has cancer and must terminate the pregnancy in order to get treatment? No exception for that in this bill.
* What about a case where the woman is hemorrhaging, the bleeding can't be stopped and the doctor must save her and abort the fetus? No exception for that.
* What if she has a partial miscarriage, and is bleeding heavily. Must she wait until her body naturally ejects the dead fetus, even though carrying a dead fetus can lead to septic shock? Doesn't sound like there's an exception for that.
* What if it's an ectopic pregnancy? You cannot save the fetus and the mother in such a case.
* What if the woman is told she's carrying an anecephalic fetus with only a brain stem which will be non-viable outside the womb? Must she carry that fetus full-term?
It gets worse. Franklin wants to create a Uterus Police to investigate miscarriages, and requires that any time a miscarriage occurs, whether in a hospital or without medical assistance, it must be reported and a fetal death certificate issued. If the cause of death is unknown, it must be investigated. If the woman can't tell how it happened, than those Uterus Police can ask family members and friends how it happened. Hospitals are required to keep records of anyone who has a spontaneous abortion and report it. Yup, we've been waiting for someone to suggest this--and Franklin has.
Needless to say, there are no exceptions allowed. Not for rape victims. Not for incest victims. Not to save the life and health of the mother (the fetus must get equal care).
Am I pissed?
Damned right I am. And so should you be. Imagine having to justify your miscarriage to a bunch of investigators. You're lying there in your hospital bed, and bunch of strangers, the Uterus Police, come in and start interrogating yopu ion what you did to cause the death of this fetus.
I truly doubt it will pass. Bills like this are introduced every session, and so far, none has passed. The bill has only Franklin as sponsor, but it's early in the session yet. It's been read twice. I'll keep an eye out to see what happens to this bill, because the country seems to have gone batshit crazy, and I've pretty much thrown up my hands at the insanity that passes for politics these days.
