Legislation that Threatens Women's Reproductive Rights

This just popped up on my radar today, thanks to Julie Anita at The Unbroken World who linked to Keiko's most recent post at Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed. Since I'm not Iowa voter, I can't call up my rep, and this bill really worries me. I'm hoping that by blogging about it, I can help to create enough uproar to stop the bill in its tracks. If you don't have time to read the article (or at least skim it), here's a summary. The bill I'm talking about is currently in the Iowa house and is a blatant attempt to ban all abortions in Iowa, by saying that personhood begins at conception.This would effect not only women who want to end unwanted pregnancies, but also women undergoing IVF who have more embryos than they need or want to transfer that cycle. As most of you know from experience, when there are several embryos to choose from the poor quality ones are usually discarded, while higher quality ones are either transfered to the mother or frozen for future use. This new law would make discarding poor quality embryos illegal. They would have to be either frozen or used (I'm not sure how the law would treat the freezing of embryos).

Another thing it would affect is women who have prenatal testing done that reveals a poor prognosis for the baby. Many babies can live and grow in-utero, but will be unable to survive, or have a very poor quality of life once they are born. Parents in this situation often make the heartbreaking choice to terminate a much wanted pregnancy, but this law would eliminate that choice for Iowa women. Women facing a poor prenatal diagnosis would instead have to choose between carrying to term or traveling out of state for a termination. Some women already have to make this choice when their doctors only find and diagnose a problem after the late-term abortion cut-off in their state. You can read some of their painful stories here. If this law passes, even more couples will face the extra strain of out-of-state travel at an already too-painful time in their lives.

Another frightening thing about this bill is that there won't be exceptions for cases of rape, and incest. Nor will there be exceptions for women with health conditions that put their life in danger from carrying to term. These types of conditions include pre-existing conditions that flare up in pregnancy like lupus and kidney problems, and unpredictable conditions like pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. IMHO, by eliminating all exceptions, this bill puts the rights of unborn babies higher than the rights of their mothers.

Regardless of your opinion about elective abortion, a law that limits women's choices in situations of fertility treatment and medical complications is really scary. Please, do what you can, and share this info with anyone who might take action. Please let your voice be heard. The consequences to all women if this bill passes are almost too frightening to contemplate. If a bill like this gets a foothold in one state, other states are likely to follow suit.

One of the other issues in Keiko's post that really caught my attention is some Georgia legislation that would require criminal investigation into the cause of fetal death for all miscarriages—just in case they were actually abortions-in-disguise. If I lived in Georgia and that law were passed, could I be considered a criminal if no cause of death were found for my three implantation failures? Or would I be feeling super lucky that I don't get the nice, early BFP's to go with my symptoms that I wish I did? Would they ignore me because my pregnancies weren't confirmed? I don't know. I do know that going through this kind of investigation whilst grieving the loss of a much wanted baby would be rubbing salt and iodine and acid in the wound. Please, if you live in Georgia, speak up about this. It turns women into criminals for an aspect of reproduction that is already too far out of their own control!

Please, regardless of your views on elective abortion, help to prevent the passage of these laws. They will bring grief to many people who are trying to build their families! Please speak out!