I’m always boggled by how little understanding so many Republicans seem to have of abortion issues. Between letting the church crash the state’s party with the whole “life begins at conception” thing and Mike Pence wanting to force women to throw funerals for their miscarriages and abortions, it’s clear that this group of almost exclusively white men have no idea what’s actually entailed in the personal experience or medical physiology of pregnancy.
Case in point: the Republicans from New Hampshire who just accidentally made it legal for pregnant women to murder people.
Senate Bill 66 defines a fetus as a person after the 20-week mark, thereby allowing anyone who causes the death of that fetus to be charged with manslaughter or murder. However, the bill–which was passed by both the House and the Senate, but not yet signed into law by the Governor–uses incredibly vague language in making exceptions for abortion. When defining the crimes it protects against, the bill specifically excludes “any act committed by the pregnant woman.”
Any. Act.
The bill also makes an exception to the fetal homicide law for “any act committed at the request or direction of the pregnant woman or for the benefit of the pregnant woman,” and “any act performed by a physician or other medical professional in the course of such physician’s or medical professional’s professional duties.” Many are pointing out that that language essentially legalizes assisted suicide.
It took more than a week for Republicans to notice what they’d done, and quickly amended the bill through a process “normally used to correct spelling and grammar,” according to the AP.
Things just said on the NH House floor: “to make sure pregnant women don’t go around killing people” #onlyinnh #nhpolitics
— Paige Sutherland (@psutherlandNHPR) June 22, 2017
On its surface, SB 66 doesn’t look like an anti-abortion bill. After all, it specifically makes an exception to the fetal homicide law for cases of abortion, right? But New Hampshire Democrats are insistent that this is a “vehicle to undermine protections established by Roe v. Wade.” Giving legal status to a fetus is a slippery slope, undoubtedly ending in fewer rights for women. As BuzzFeed points out, the law itself is unnecessary, since there are already additional penalties for crimes against pregnant women. SB 66 is simply a step towards establishing legal rights for fetuses.
But since Republicans don’t actually understand that there is a HUGE difference between a fetus and a person, this is where we end up. Roving gangs of pregnant women, freed from the normal laws of society, killing people at will. I assume.
(via BuzzFeed, image: Shutterstock)
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