New Mexico Bill Would Criminalize Abortions After Rape As 'Tampering With Evidence'
New Mexico Bill Would Criminalize Abortions After Rape As 'Tampering With Evidence'Source: Huffington Post
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/new-mexico-abortion-bill_n_2541894.html
House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence."
“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," the bill says.
Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.
Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a progressive nonprofit opposing the bill, called it "blatantly unconstitutional" on Thursday.
“The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” he said. “According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case.“
= new reply since forum marked as read
Un-legitimate rapes if the woman doesn't get pregnant. 
This bill by a woman too boot.
Do the babies stay in evidence once they are born? LOL! Sealed in a manila envelope in a tub in downtown. How can the mother handle the evidence and then bring it to trial?
So she's backpedaling furiously. 
State Rep. Cathrynn Brown, sponsor of an anti-abortion bill that she called poorly written, said her intent was not to charge rape victims with a felony if they terminated their pregnancy.
Brown, R-Carlsbad, said her bill was badly drafted and that she did not catch the language problems when reviewing it.
"I missed this one," she said Thursday.
Her proposal, House Bill 206, says: "Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime."
Rep. Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque, said Brown's intent was to focus on a perpetrator, such as a stepfather who raped a teen, impregnated her and then demanded that she get an abortion.
http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/newmexico/2013/01/a-media-storm-for-rep-brown.html
