Guardian: Pregnant Women Who Lose Babies Face Murder Charges

[amborin]

Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges
Women's rights campaigners see the creeping criminalisation of pregnant women as a new front in the culture wars over abortion

Rennie Gibbs is accused of murder, but the crime she is alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. Yet she faces life in prison in Mississippi over the death of her unborn child.

Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby's death – they charged her with the "depraved-heart murder" of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

Gibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. But her case is by no means isolated. Across the US more and more prosecutions are being brought that seek to turn pregnant women into criminals.

"Women are being stripped of their constitutional personhood and subjected to truly cruel laws," said Lynn Paltrow of the campaign National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW). "It's turning pregnant women into a different class of person and removing them of their rights."

snip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/24/america-pregnant-women-murder-charges

[provis99]

1. well, that's America.

Glad I'm finally getting the hell out.

[Anakin Skywalker]

2. Please take me with you! Please?!

[Kurmudgeon]

3. The pursuit of profit leads to mission creep.

"South Carolina was one of the first states to introduce such a foetal homicide law. National Advocates for Pregnant Women has found only one case of a South Carolina man who assaulted a pregnant woman having been charged under its terms, and his conviction was eventually overturned. Yet the group estimates there have been up to 300 women arrested for their actions during pregnancy."

Unfreaking believable!!!

[ohheckyeah]

4. I wonder when women of

child bearing age are going to fight back?

[Lil Missy]

5. It's all about men controlling women. n/t

[Tx4obama]

6. K & R n/t

[DrinkBeerNotTea]

7. Handmaid's Tale

[hlthe2b]

8. Wealthy women receiving good prenatal care will be protected...

since their physicians will presumably be able to interject should a miscarriage occur resulting in questions. Of course the poor will be once again victimized, since their miscarriages may well have occurred sans any health care.

This is an atrocity. Imagine the worldwide outrage if a visiting tourist were to miscarry and get caught up in this.

I certainly don't hate men... but damn it progressive men of all stripes need to stand up to those who would take these steps to control and destroy women.

[donobry]

12. WHAT?!?!?!

Originally Posted by Wimdu Mon Jun-27-11 05:35 AM

Guardian: Pregnant Women Who Lose Babies Face Charges

"Women are being stripped of their constitutional personhood and subjected to truly cruel laws," said Lynn Paltrow of the campaign National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW). "It's turning pregnant women into a different class of person and removing them of their rights."

snip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/24/america-pre...

This is absolutely unbelievable. It is criminalizing women for something, in the most part, beyond their control. Many 'respectable' women smoke or drink for example during pregnancy, and that does damage to the baby, but the likelihood of them going to court is negligible.

And where does this policy stop. Do we do an autopsy to discover it the sperm or the egg was faulty. Do we arrest people who accidentally got pregnant and didn't initially want the baby. It is utter madness

[hlthe2b]

13. Absolutely...

Women are being stripped of their basic human rights. While we have been focused on marriage rights for GLBT (which I do absolutely support), nonetheless it has allowed the RW to increasingly revert women to a status less than chattel. Who will stand up with us against this? My generation fought damned hard for ERA, birth control and the right to choose. All those rights are being chipped away... If women don't have control over their own body, they have no right to autonomy. They are not equal in the eyes of the law.

Yet, I am always amazed at how many people believe that the failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is inconsequential (or think it WAS ratified--which is common among young women).... This is the consequence-- the apathy, the ignorance is destroying American democracy.

[CarmanK]

9. This adherence to ideology is absurd.

The republican legislators are getting away with stripping women of their rights state by state. The idea that they can bestow personhood on an EGG, with no basis in science is an abomination. It is a means to strip women, not just pregnant women of their equal rights guaranteed under the constitution.women are being stripped of their equal rights and rights to privacy under Roe vs Wade, state by state. And is widespread now because the repugs are in charge in red states and can rely on this SCOTUS to over turn RvW if given the opportunity.

[hlthe2b]

11. So, why are they not arresting men who have vasectomies...

think of all the little sperm they've killed....:sarcasm:

Next they will outlaw tubal ligations for women, no doubt. :eyes:

[StarsInHerHair]

10. so WHERE are the Dems passing laws to stop such madness being passed in

THEIR States? THIS is the way to do, to mandate protections in BEFORE the Pro-Fetus madmen get to introduce their regressive Dark Age "morality". How soon til they once again blame the women for the gender of the baby, too?

[amborin]

14. kick for the afternoon

[One_Life_To_Give]

15. Can we implant embryo's in the abdomens of Miss Legislators?

Let them experience the whole "Junior" thing firsthand.

[WillyT]

16. Kick !!!

:kick:

[McCamy Taylor]

17. Good lord! What have we become? Incubators for the state's children?