Georgia (USA) makes abortion punishable by life imprisonment.

[Oldstyle]

New legislation HB 481 only allows abortion up to 6 weeks. It has massive consequences for women who get abortions from doctors or miscarry. A woman who seeks out an illegal abortion from a health care provider would be a party to murder, subject to life in prison. And a woman who miscarries because of her own conduct—say, using drugs or alcohol while pregnant—would be liable for second-degree murder, punishable by 10 to 30 years’ imprisonment. Prosecutors may interrogate women who miscarry to determine whether they can be held responsible; if they find evidence of culpability, they may charge, detain, and try these women for the death of their fetuses.

Even women who seek lawful abortions out of state may not escape punishment. If a Georgia resident plans to travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion, she may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment. An individual who helps a woman plan her trip to get an out-of-state abortion, or transports her to the clinic, may also be charged with conspiracy to end of the life of a “person” with “full legal recognition” under Georgia law.

This is a shocking assault on women's health, autonomy and reproductive rights. The intention to 'interrogate' women who miscarry to check for 'blame' is inhuman. Apparently 28 other states are intending to follow Georgia's lead.

I am reminded of this cartoon whenever I read stories such as this... not pro life, just pro birth!

Apologies for the double post!

El Salvador has similar view, women get v long prison terms for miscarrying

www.google.com/amp/s/www.pri.org/stories/2018-12-14/salvadoran-women-bond-serving-long-sentences-crime-miscarriage%3famp

This move by Georgia is grotesque.

I don't really understand why they have it in for women and girls so much tbh. Religion? That's the usual reason /excuse.

Men hate the fact they have lost control of women's bodies, through the pill, women saying no, loss of virginial "no sex before marriage" culture, the MAPill and safe abortions. These bills are nothing but a manifestation of the deep resentment men have towards that loss of control.

This is what it all comes down to. All of it. Criminalise abortions and contraceptives, decriminalise prostitution, make no effort to prosecute rape, expand surrogacy, mainstream porn, make it illegal to access any single sex areas or resources, destroy the language of our bodies and experiences. Who can object to a bunch of walking uteri and vaginas stuck in brothels and bedrooms? This is the point it's all converging on.

Maybe they could castrate the man who got the woman pregnant at the same time. That might make some stop and think. Or vasectomy if that's too extreme. He clearly can't be trusted with his sperm.

This is terrifying, it really is. With transgender ideology and reproductive rights being restricted, America is fast becoming a totalitarian, dystopian country.

I am seething!! I am so angry. Women and girls will die as a result of this. Yet men can continue to have all the sex they want.

Men need to fuck off out of women's wombs. It's nothing to do with them.

Apologies for the language :)

When feminists criticise PIV sex this is what we're talking about.

Men interfere in women's wombs because they believe foetuses are male and there is no way in hell that women should be given that kind of power over a male. We're incubators for them. Nothing else. Certainly not human (or even women, according to that earlier tweet).

This is horrific. Yhis may be TMI and upset some so stop reading now but when I miscarried I haemorrhaged. The blood was pouring out of me, I was on the phone to the EPU my DH asked if I had diarrhoea but it was the clots coming out of me. I was advised to go to A&E and initially they were quite relaxed about it. I asked for a conti pad to help soak up the blood and I was told by the bored looking male nurse that I could change my sanitary pad. I informed him that I had and that in the minute since i left the toilet i had soaked it and was leaking again, then I coughed and blood splashed and pooled onto the floor through my legs and out the front of the pyjamas I was wearing. Then they panicked and I was front of the queue. I nearly died due to a miscarriage, I had no idea it could be that serious. If I had to pay for my healthcare I would have thought twice about going, after all it's just a miscarriage. If I thought I would be potentially interrogated for murder I would have bled to death at home. These people are not pro-life they hate women.

Perfect cartoon SanFranBear

Ultimately, it all supports the male biological directive: maximum shagging and reproduction, but leaving parenting optional.

They want the fun of fucking us, the power to force us to carry their genetic offspring to term, but always retaining the freedom to just piss off leaving us holding the baby while they go and shag the next woman. Male biological job done.

Brace yourself, the first case likely to be affected by this brutality in Ohio is that of an 11 year old girl.

buckeyestate.news/2019/05/03/police-ohio-man-raped-11-year-old-who-is-now-pregnant/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Fark ran this story with the following headline -

"Bond set at $1,000,000 for Ohio man who raped 11-year-old girl. Bond set at $0 for Ohio lawmakers who wrote the new law which will force her to give birth to his child"

I don't have the words. The people who pass these laws must be actual sadists to do this to a child.

So their logic is that to save the life of this foetus they need to wreak the most awful child abuse, emotional damage and potential physical damage on the 11 year child that is actually here, now. It doesn't get much more barbaric

DF worked on a gynae ward before the 1967 Abortion Act came in. He told me that every few weeks there'd be a little flurry of patients with atypical miscarriages. He and the rest of the staff assumed it was a result of a backstreet abortionist who travelled from town to town.

They'd get police officers on the ward trying to establish that an illegal abortion had occurred. They always replied very courteously and gravely that there was no way of knowing what had caused a miscarriage, so were unable to help the police.

They made sure women who might have been to an abortionist knew that medical staff could not say why they had miscarried and, if questioned, would be unable to confirm or deny police suspicions. They would remind them that they were covered by medical confidentiality. And of course staff weren't able to be absolutely sure which of the women under their care had miscarried spontaneously and which had not, though things may be different these days.

Here's hoping that doctors in Georgia take the same line if this vile policy becomes law. It's going to be hard to prosecute a woman if her doctor says there's no evidence either way.

DF was very pleased when the Abortion Act came in. He felt it was righting a wrong. As a GP he was the first port of call for women with unwanted pregnancies and always referred. I remember a boy I'd rejected saying spitefully "Everyone knows that your dad is an abortion monger." To which I replied "He is indeed. And I'm very proud of him."

Criminalising abortion doesn’t prevent abortions, it just prevents safe abortions. Georgia will see an increase in women dying from backstreet abortions or committing suicide when discovering they’re pregnant.

Will legislators react when they are responsible for the next Gerri Santoros or will they just not care?

I saw on twitter that someone had posted wondering whether this would be there would be an unintended consequence of suddenly illegally imprisoning thousands of people, if foetuses were given personhood and their mothers were in prison.

Re the personhood issue there are all sorts of ways this can come into play as well.

I think some states have, or at least had until relatively recently, laws around pregnancy and drinking. Found one webpage which seems to suggest it is more of a norm than an exception for a state to have these but can't find anything where they have actually been actively used in the last decade. It isn't too much of a reach to assume that there will be legislators who would want to put in place some form of punishment for putting a foetus at risk - be that drinking, drugs, an unspecified 'reckless behaviour'. Obviously nobody is going to say that drink and drugs in pregnancy as a good thing but laws conferring personhood do lead into some areas where women can once again face punitive consequences as opposed to having support or advice offered.. This is ringing all sorts of bells - think there was mention of this in Faludi's Backlash? Been a while since I read it mind.

This is just racist AF. In Georgia, the majority of women who will be imprisoned by this law are black. Anyone with money will quietly hop a plane to another state, just as they did pre- Roe v. Wade. Just as Europeans used to have to either go to London or The Hague.

The US already has a very effective school-to-prison pipeline for black men; now there will be one for black women. With for-profit prisons and prison labour on behalf of multi-national corporations that pays ten cents an hour.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution forbids slave labour EXCEPT in prisons.

This is sickening.

WTAF

'So their logic is that to save the life of this foetus they need to wreak the most awful child abuse, emotional damage and potential physical damage on the 11 year child that is actually here, now. It doesn't get much more barbaric'

Pregnant child is a girl. Low value.
Foetus could be a boy. High value.

Bickering great post.

Occurs to me that the women in prison might make good surrogates. I wonder if that is where next.

If this 11 yo has a miscarriage she could be imprisoned? Her body is young to carry a pregnancy.

Don't forget the cost of giving birth in the US means healthcare during giving birth is out of reach for many or they face substandard care simply because of their race.

This article from just a couple of days ago

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48205515
Significant racial disparity found in US pregnancy deaths

"The leading factor" in maternal mortality is race, the statement said. "This disparity is due, in part, to racial bias and overt racism that exists in the provision of health care and in health system processes."

And

Among white women, 13 mothers died for every 100,000 live births. For black women, this number more than tripled, with more than 42 mothers dying for every 100,000 live births.

Among Native American and Alaska Native women this number was 32.5, and among Asian and Pacific Islander women it was 14.2.

The lowest rate was among Hispanic women: just over 11 mothers died for every 100,000 live births.

An abortion for a woman who can not afford to pay for medical assistance when giving birth might be an act to prevent her own death.

San Fran Bear, that seems to be pretty much Jacob Rees Mogg's attitude towards abortion and single mothers.

Can't believe this is happening in a civilised country. Can't believe the 'progressive' stance is to pretend we can't identify the people this will affect.