Death Certificates on Abortions Proposed

[Jo]

By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press Writer


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Legislation introduced in Tennessee would require death certificates for aborted fetuses, which likely would create public records identifying women who have abortions.
More (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/14/D8N9LFT00.html)

[Brooke]

Wow, I honestly don't know what to say except that I can't believe it. That's just so wrong. My brain is over-fried tonight so I will elaborate more when I can think better.

[Jejune]

I felt sick reading the title of this thread. I see this as very, very different from trying to make abortion illegal. I disagree with that, but I do understand why for some people it would be a moral imperative. However, since this law doesn't make abortion illegal or stop it, acknowledging the humanity of the aborted fetuses can't be the point. If it was about that, it would be a bill outlawing abortion. The only point of something of this sort would be to out the women who had abortions. That's just plain cruel. I'd invite people who think it's fair to take a look at some of the support boards for women who have abortions that exist at large parenting sites like Babycenter and iVillage. Most of the women who post there went into their decision with a great deal of agony and sometimes a need for privacy that has to do with the physical danger they feel they're in from the person who impregnated them. Something of sort could be a death sentence for some of those women.

[off-kilter]

Does that mean I would need to get one for my miscarriage?

What, exactly, is the point except to try to make people feel shame and publicly denounce their decisions? Are they going to put down the reasons for the decision too? "Multiple fetal anomalies" will get a moral pass, "product of rape" will get a suspicious but reluctantly accepting eye, and "can't afford a fourth child when I have three under 5 and am divorcing the cheating bastard" will get censured and chastised?

[Lori]

Does that mean I would need to get one for my miscarriage?

Exactly. It makes absolutely no sense that an aborted fetus would require a death certificate but a miscarried fetus wouldn't. Otherwise, all you are doing is singling out women who've had abortions so that you can shame them or track them or whatever you're planning on doing.

And if you're going to start giving out death certificates for every pregnancy that ends, how do you go about determining that? You'd have to somehow register every pregnancy, which I suppose could be achieved by mandatory monthly pregnancy tests for every woman of childbearing age, but talk about a bueracratic nightmare and a complete invasion of privacy.

This is cruel and arbitrary. It's not going to do anything to reduce the abortion rate, but could very likely place some women who've had abortions in danger, since their abortions would be a matter of public record.

[Danielle]

Oh dear. ITA Lori, this is flawed in so many ways.

[Kristen]

I don't really see the point in that, and I am most definitely a pro-lifer.

[wendygrace]

This makes perfect sense to me and is ingenius! You can't outlaw abortion. Its just not gonna happen in our world today. It doesn't work. BUT if you can make abortions public and make the fetus' more "humane", it'll get women to stop and think! Geez, this won't send us back to the top of illegal abortions. (please note the dripping sarcasm).

It really is a very smart thing for what they are trying to do since outlawing abortions out right is just never gonna happen. Its a horrible thing to do but at least they're getting creative.

[Jurgita]

I don't really see the point in that, and I am most definitely a pro-lifer.

Yeah that!

[Lori]

I was trying to see if it was possible that there was some sort of sincere or logical rationale for this, but there just doesn't seem to be.

The reason given by the person pushing the bill--that it would allow people to know how many abortions take place--just makes no sense. We know: a lot. Every figure I've ever seen given on the number of abortions that take place each year indicates that it's a lot, and surveys of how many women have had abortions find that it's a lot (somewhere between 1 in 3 to 1 in 4). Being able to determine the exact number is pointless, and if you believe that abortion is murder, why would it matter? A thousand would be just as bad as a hundred thousand. I certainly wouldn't say that, if a town only had three rapes, as opposed to thirty, rape laws would be less necessary.

I disagree with most legislation that would give the government more power over women's reproductive lives, but at least you can see that there is some sort of sincere intention behind it. In this, I don't even see that. All this would do is open up women to threats and harassment. It's just mean-spirited.

[Beka]

On a slightly bizarre off shoot here as a mother who has experience several m/c's i don't like the idea that an aborted baby has more right to be identified and proclaimed as more humane than my babies i lost at a later stage than many abortions are carried out, they had no right to certification and the whole events were largely left unnoted (my missed m/c at 12 weeks they even gave me the medical records of my pregnancy in effect wiping any existance of it from my history)

I also don't like the way in which this would "mark" women on the basis of one decision they made at one point in their life- many of us are very different women than we were 10 years ago and i expect these changes will continue within us as individuals throughout our life time, I resent the fact this certification would mean records of each woman that has had an unwanted pregnancy but NOT each man who has caused an unwanted pregnancy- both are equally as responsible so why should it be recorded in a womans history aside from her private medical history? If it had any medical validity i might feel differently but medical records (which are kept private) continue to contain any information which may be of importance- this move would just be paperwork for a non-medical need marking a woman on grounds of only 1 stand point, the pro-life one and it isn't a pre-requisit of citizenship that one holds those morals and beliefs so to me it is very wrong and it's marking a woman for excersing her right to chose, they don't mark down if a pregnancy that is continued was planned or unplanned so i do not see why an unplanned pregnancy that is terminated should be kept in a register like this.

[Desirae]

I agree with Kristen... This just confuses me.

[Polly]

Yawn. A politician playing to his pro-life base with a bill that has absolutely no chance of getting passed. However, HE still gets the credit for trying.

A bill like this is meant to do one thing-polarize. Congrats. It did it.

Polly

[Marzipan]

I felt sick reading the title of this thread. I see this as very, very different from trying to make abortion illegal. I disagree with that, but I do understand why for some people it would be a moral imperative. However, since this law doesn't make abortion illegal or stop it, acknowledging the humanity of the aborted fetuses can't be the point. If it was about that, it would be a bill outlawing abortion. The only point of something of this sort would be to out the women who had abortions. That's just plain cruel. I'd invite people who think it's fair to take a look at some of the support boards for women who have abortions that exist at large parenting sites like Babycenter and iVillage. Most of the women who post there went into their decision with a great deal of agony and sometimes a need for privacy that has to do with the physical danger they feel they're in from the person who impregnated them. Something of sort could be a death sentence for some of those women.


Excellent post.