Having a miscarriage? Don't do it in Virginia.

[wende darling]

http://democracyforvirginia.typepad.com ... e_sen.html

[Partha]

No comment.

[vaulos]

I'm sorry. What's the problem with being required to notify the police within 12 hours of a miscarriage? (Besides the obvious waste of police resources of course)

[Ddrak]

12 hours is a bit rich. 7 days would make more sense.

Dd

[vaulos]

How long do you have to report someone as dead? I'd imagine it's probably the same amount of time.

[wende darling]

The very last thing a woman needs after suffering through a miscarriage is to be questioned by the police about ANYTHING, no less being asked to provide the weight, in grams, and the sex. It's invasive and uncalled for. Do women generally report to the police when they get pregnant? No. Hell, and I don't know about VA's laws, but in most states you don't have to report the birth of your child (if born at home) in that time period. So why do the police need to be involved in a miscarriage and why should a woman, who's suffering a tremendous and personal loss, be forced to report to the police about that loss? Why should any woman in that situation have to worry about being stuck with a fine and a misdemeanor charge if she neglects to call? What is the point in that? What does anyone gain? Not only that, but many women haven't even told their friends and family that they are pregnant before they are 12 weeks pregnant "just in case". They don't want all the questions or to rehash the events if something happens durring those first 12 weeks when a woman is most likely to suffer the loss. Now, instead, they would have to explain to nosey neighbors why they had a police officer at their house the night before?

[vaulos]

People say the same thing about when they have to report a relative as dead. Which of course is exactly how they are treating the miscarriage. It is consistent with VA's anti-abortion stance.

[jookkor]

I have seen girls smoke/poke themselves into having misscarriages....not pretty. Maybe that happens alot down there and prompted the making of the law?

[Riggen]

Vaulos did you read every detail that the bill, if passed into law, would demand?

This would constitute state-mandated psychological torture. Nothing less. I can't believe anyone would find this to be even marginally acceptable.

[Relbeek Einre]

It came from a Republican, so some people are going to have blinders on.

[Embar Angylwrath]

In the form presented, I think its a bit heavy-handed. But I can't find the Virginia definition of what a "fetus" is. Twelve hours is maybe a bit burdensome. A week is too long. Forty-eight hours should be sufficient.

[Riggen]

A "bit" heavy handed? A "bit" burdensome? It's a fucking miscarriage of justice, and the clod who came up with it needs to be served a clue.

There's no necessity for a law like this. It serves no common good but a political agenda, and hurts women who have already been deeply wounded.

[Narith]

I see it as the beginning step to making abortion illegal. Maybe I am seeing steps that aren't there but you pass this law, desensitize people to reporting miscarrages, move it up to having to report abortions and less abortions happen due to people not wanting the government into thier own personal and emotional lives.

This law is just disgusting but does not supprise me in the least from our current government. They seem to be on a roll stepping all over personal rights, privacy, and freedom, not to mention the emotional hardship the women face in these situations to have them humiliated further by having to face up to it and answer all kinds of questions about it to a complete stranger just in order to file a government report.

But hey, you all voted these psychos into office, you have to face the consequences.

[vaulos]

Why is this torture? When my father died, we had to report his death (and I believe within 12 hours). Why isn't anyone suggesting that to be torture? We were distraght, and still had to report it! And lord help us, we even had to call someone to come take his body! The bastards!

Seriously, are you people listening to yourselves? I'll accept arguments for the pro-choicers that it's no one's business...because it's just a bit of tissue. And I'll accept the pro-life argument that someone has died, and so it must be reported. What I won't accept is pro-choice people arguing that this is torture, or pro-lifer's arguing that it's a privacy violation.

[wende darling]

Ok, it's noones business. Should I next report every time I menstrate? Should I have it evaluated to be certain that it wasn't a miscarriage, because most women miscarry w/o even being aware that they were pregnant. Not to mention, how does it help anyone??? There is an obvious reason to report the death of a person who was alive yesterday and isn't today, but an embryo is not the same thing. As long as abortion is legal there is a big distinction in the eyes of the law between a fetus/embryo and a person and to force women to report a miscarriage is just one way to close that gap for the republicans and pro-lifers, although, I bet that even most of the hard core pro-life women would oppose such a law since they are just as affected by miscarriage as a pro-choice woman is. It's really only the men, who have no hopes of getting pregnant and not the same emotional ties to the whole ordeal, who think this is a-ok.

[Ddrak]

As long as abortion is legal there is a big distinction in the eyes of the law between a fetus/embryo and a person

Not as big as you'd think - after all many states consider the murder of a pregnant woman to be a double murder.

Dd

[vaulos]

although, I bet that even most of the hard core pro-life women would oppose such a law since they are just as affected by miscarriage as a pro-choice woman is. It's really only the men, who have no hopes of getting pregnant and not the same emotional ties to the whole ordeal, who think this is a-ok.

How very sexist of you. Also, many pro-life women actually have funeral ceromonies for miscarried "babies"- complete with coffin and burial.

[wende darling]

It's not sexist at all, it's the truth. Men will never have the emotions that are associated with pregnancy that women have, plain and simple.

Many pro-choice women have the same funeral ceromonies. Being attached to a "baby" that you plan on bringing into this world is not limited to pro-lifers.

[Ddrak]

It's no more sexist than saying women should stay home, cook and clean because they are more suited for that sort of thing than dealing with the stress of work. Men are stronger, more emotionally stable and don't require maternity leave when they get knocked up.

That's all truth and non-sexist too, at least by a Wende definition.

Dd

[wende darling]

Oh good god you are an idiot. The truth of the matter is that pregnancy changes a woman's chemical make-up, not a man's, therefore a pregnancy is much more about her than it is about the man. A man could never, personally or physiologically, understand what it is to be a pregnat woman suffering through a miscarriage. While a man would probably be upset by the miscarriage it would not hold the same emotions as it does for the woman. Just as I can't say that I would understand how a man would feel going through testicular cancer, you cannot say that you would understand how a woman would feel going through a miscarriage.