Dear Utah

Dear Utah lawmakers,

I know you don't read a lot of blogs, and especially not mine. But perhaps you should read the previous post about trusting women with birth. I regret now that I didn't explicitly extend my post to include trusting a woman for the entire nine months of pregnancy leading up to it, because obviously there is some confusion on your part.

Let's face it, a seventeen year old paying to get herself beaten in an attempt to miscarry her baby is pretty unusual. The vast majority of pregnant women care enough about their future children to change their dietary and lifestyle habits in hopes of giving them the best start possible. So it seems a little weird to me that you even deemed it necessary to write H.B. 12- a bill with vague language which is intended to limit what constitutes a legal abortion- let alone pass it by such a wide margin. Your failure to define “knowing”, “reckless”, or “criminal intent” leaves this bill open to interpretation. The thing that bothers me most is that it really isn't clear where miscarriage will end and criminal homicide will begin.

Here are some facts that you might not know. According to the Mayo Clinic, 10-20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Most of those are due to chromosomal abnormalities, which is a five-dollar term meaning that something has naturally gone wrong in development. The Mayo Clinic also says that certain health conditions such as thyroid problems or uncontrolled diabetes could cause a miscarriage. I guess we could get into a debate about the affordability of health care, but that would be a long letter and I have a feeling I know where you all stand on that issue. Does a woman who can't afford medical treatment engage in knowing and reckless behavior? In fact, unless it's an exceptional case, how can you prove criminal intent in the majority of miscarriages given the information above?

Did you intend for this bill to be widely applied? What if a woman falls down the stairs and gets arrested? I'm sure you saw the headlines about the case in Iowa. Does it put a woman under suspicion if she expresses surprise or disappointment about finding herself pregnant? I imagine that in your haste to pass the bill, you didn't realize that you were being such jerks. Losing a child is a terrible thing. Making a woman prove her intentions after such a loss is despicable.

And just in case you think we missed it, we can all see that this is an attempt to bolster fetal rights and weaken the abortion laws. I hope you weren't trying to be subtle about that.

You could have written a bill to ensure that every pregnant woman in your state gets excellent prenatal care. You could have guaranteed that women have the financial support they need to raise their children. You could crack down on domestic abuse. You could have done any number of things to help a woman feel confident- rather than desperate- going into motherhood. Instead of helping families, you've passed a bill that blames and punishes women. That is a disgraceful thing to be remembered for.

Yours in frustration,

Astrid of Leda's Revenge