FSTDT Forums
Community => Politics and Government => Topic started by: gyeonghwa on April 05, 2012, 05:23:13 pm
-
Citizens in Mississippi, once, and Colorado, twice, have resoundingly rejected so called "personhood" measures that would have established the "pre-born" as separate legal persons under the law. There is increasing evidence that when people understand the broad reach of such measures, they vote them down. But what happens when prosecutors and judges misuse their power and "pass" such measures in disguise?
While people in Mississippi were considering Proposition 26 and deciding whether fertilized eggs and embryos would be treated as entirely separate legal persons, a prosecutor and courts were addressing the same question behind the scenes, where voters have no role or voice.
In 2004, the Mississippi Legislature broadened the state's homicide laws to define "human being" to include an "unborn child at every stage of gestation from conception until live birth." The fetal homicide laws in Mississippi, as around the country, were passed to address third-party violence against a pregnant woman that caused harm to the unborn. In Lowndes County, however, a prosecutor decided that this law could be used to punish a pregnant woman who suffered a stillbirth. The prosecution targeted an African-American teenager and chose a set of "facts" least likely to elicit sympathy: The prosecutor claimed that the stillbirth was caused by the teen's use of an illegal drug.
If judges decide that the homicide law permits the prosecution of this teenager, then all pregnant women who suffer such losses can be prosecuted for the crime of homicide. This is because the decision in the case isn't about being a teenager or using drugs -- it is about the same thing as a personhood measure: redefining eggs, embryos, and fetuses in such a way as to give the state power to investigate, control, and punish women in relationship to their pregnancy outcomes.
Despite the fact that people reject the idea that a fetus is a person, persecutors are still punish women for stillbirths through subversive means. This is why I am skeptical of any legislation passed by conservatives. They may sound all dandy but there is a strong chance they'll misuse them.
-
Stillbirth is rarely the fault of the mother. This is monstrous!
-
I tend to think they are aware of that. The just want to punish women for having sex.
-
And then having the gall to deprive the man of his heir, the hussy.
-
I...what tha? I just...
(http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu273/RH-00/i-got-nothin.png)
-
The prosecution targeted an African-American teenager and chose a set of "facts" least likely to elicit sympathy: The prosecutor claimed that the stillbirth was caused by the teen's use of an illegal drug.
Of course it was a black girl that they charged.
Dumb fucking Mississippi hicks.
-
I've said it before, I'll say it again. The South sucks.
-
It's the logical conclusion of legal personhood.
-
What's the original article for this? I missed the link somehow.
-
What's the original article for this? I missed the link somehow.
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/04/04/personhood-measures-in-disguise
-
Don't you just love poorly-thought-out legislation?
-
Disgusting.
-
Don't you just love poorly-thought-out legislation?
Oh, I imagine it was perfectly thought out.
They want to punish women for wanting rights :-/