US state introduces bill to punish women getting abortions with death penalty

If this goes through, doctors will be even more reluctant than they already are to treat pregnancy complications or other conditions arising during pregnancy. There will be unimaginable numbers of Savita Halappanavars and Sheila Hodgers.

Woman is pregnant.

Woman has abortion or miscarriage.

Woman (no longer pregnant) is arrested, charged, tried, executed.

There's no baby to be born and adopted.

No. Hth.

So under this law, the doctor carrying out this medically necessary procedure causing a miscarriage of the unviable foetus could be put on trial and sentenced to death.

South Carolina may soon be very short of doctors. I can't imagine many doctors choosing to work there.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68366337

There's already been this. It was nearly a year ago so I'm not sure what the current situation is but at the time people were struggling to find companies who would transport their embryos out of the state because they didn't want to be liable.

You wonder how this kind of legislation would interplay with IVF. Would there be a legal requirement to implant all embryos- if you couldn't afford multiple cycles would they risk multiple 'babies' by implanting them all?

In fairness you can't be sentenced for murder if nobody has died

If it wasn't clear, they'd delay the execution until the baby was born

What baby? If she's been sentenced to death the baby must have been aborted.

It's not only the pregnant women who would be criminalised, is it? It's the doctors treating them. Would a doctor in this scenario be put on trial and forced to prove that what he did was medically necessary and that the foetus wasn't viable?

Because if the woman was on trial for murder, then the doctor is equally culpable. Possibly more so, since the doctor is the one actually carrying out the procedure.

A doctor carrying out an illegal abortion in Texas can be sentenced to life in prison. I believe that's the harshest punishment but other states have imprisonment, fines, and suspension of medical licences.

Well one or the other of us is confused. If there's a pending execution, the baby has been aborted. Unless I misread the article.

This has made me tearful. A backwards step indeed and placing women’s lives in jeopardy.
I’m sure that if this becomes law then women who have not had an abortion will be found guilty of doing so.

Are you getting confused? If the mother has been convicted/sentenced there would be no baby. If there is a baby, there would be no crime.

I don’t know. But it’s genuinely horrible to think about isn’t it!

Good doctors being prosecuted (or worse) for trying to help women.

Then it’s a double whammy. Get rid of the “murdering” woman and the “murdering” doctor too. So even less options for women’s healthcare available.

Or doctors simply refusing to treat ectopic pregnancies and other miscarriages out of fear for themselves.

It's not only the pregnant women who would be criminalised, is it? It's the doctors treating them. Would a doctor in this scenario be put on trial and forced to prove that what he did was medically necessary and that the foetus wasn't viable?

Because if the woman was on trial for murder, then the doctor is equally culpable. Possibly more so, since the doctor is the one actually carrying out the procedure.

I had an ectopic pregnancy which was treated with a methotrexate injection. In the US, although many years ago now and in a democratic state.

The doctor made a point of saying to me that the foetus was not viable in any way, that this was effectively a miscarriage treatment and not an abortion and it was necessary for my own health. Obviously I knew that and I never felt any other way about it.

To think that women having to endure that process (for a wanted or unwanted baby) could then be questioned and treated like criminals and potentially get the death penalty is just horrific. Or doctors simply refusing to treat ectopic pregnancies and other miscarriages out of fear for themselves.

Gilead genuinely seems to be coming closer

Yes indeed, it is very sad when women don't support other women.

Well in this case it's frankly thick. Any fertile woman supporting this is stupidly confident that she'll never be in the position of having had a miscarriage that someone doesn't believe is genuine. I'm sure plenty can guarantee they'll never have an abortion. But a miscarriage is totally out of their control.

I guess there's also money to be made from putting the babies of executed mothers up for adoption.

There wouldn't be a baby if the mother is executed for aborting it, though.

I think it's sinister enough already, OP!

Yes indeed, it is very sad when women don't support other women.

I have no doubt this will become law.

Some Americans. Plenty are horrified about their religious right's assault on women's rights. I may not agree with the US flavour of left wing politics on trans women and a few other things but by and large they are on the side of women in this (even if they haven't let themselves think too deeply about the contradiction) and a lot of Americans are just as against this as you are.