Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Miscarriage: A Possible Crime Scene in Georgia?




A Georgian whackadoodle politician, one Bobby Franklin, is proposing a new law about the murder of prenatal Americans. I raise my helmet for Mr. Franklin, because he is very logical in his defense of the zygote Americans against murder.

Part of his proposal covers the obvious need to find out if any zygote Americans are at risk. Because they make their living inside structures sometimes called women, it is necessary to police those structures:
2) 'Prenatal murder' means the intentional removal of a fetus from a woman with an
115 intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus; provided, however,
116 that if a physician makes a medically justified effort to save the lives of both the mother
117 and the fetus and the fetus does not survive, such action shall not be prenatal murder.

....

Said title is further amended by revising subsection (a) of Code Section 31-10-18, relating
198 to registration of spontaneous fetal deaths, as follows:
199 "(a) A report of spontaneous fetal death for each spontaneous fetal death which occurs in
200 this state shall be filed with the local registrar of the county in which the delivery occurred
201 within 72 hours after such delivery in accordance with this Code section unless the place
202 of fetal death is unknown, in which case a fetal death certificate shall be filed in the county
203 in which the dead fetus was found within 72 hours after such occurrence. All induced
204 terminations of pregnancy shall be reported in the manner prescribed in Code Section
205 31-10-19. Preparation and filing of reports of spontaneous fetal death shall be as follows:
206 (1) When a dead fetus is delivered in an institution, the person in charge of the institution
207 or that person's designated representative shall prepare and file the report;
208 (2) When a dead fetus is delivered outside an institution, the physician in attendance at
209 or immediately after delivery shall prepare and file the report;
210 (3) When a spontaneous fetal death required to be reported by this Code section occurs
211 without medical attendance at or immediately after the delivery or when inquiry is
212 required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the 'Georgia Death Investigation Act,' the
213 proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare
214 and file the report within 30 days; and
215 (4) When a spontaneous fetal death occurs in a moving conveyance and the fetus is first
216 removed from the conveyance in this state or when a dead fetus is found in this state and
217 the place of fetal death is unknown, the fetal death shall be reported in this state. The
218 place where the fetus was first removed from the conveyance or the dead fetus was found
219 shall be considered the place of fetal death."
Amanda Marcotte noticed that it's hard to think of a better term for all this than Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, an imaginary world where all women had their fertility policed.

This proposal will not become law in Georgia. I'm fairly convinced of that. But may I draw your attention to the fact that when I once wrote about the logical consequences to women of proposals to turn abortion into murder, I did describe this very thing. And then I got called for being ridiculously extreme. Mmm.

It goes without saying that having every miscarriage policed in this way would make the lives of women who already are undergoing hell more hellish. Our Bobby doesn't care about that at all.