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Sadly that sigh of relief was even more temporary than I had hoped, and its not like I had high hopes in the first place.  The proposed law which would make “reckless” behavior resulting in miscarriage a criminal offense in Utah went back to legislature, was superficially reworded, and has now been signed into law.  It’s a sad day for the women of Utah.

Guv signs revised abortion bill [Salt Lake Tribune]

The bill’s original version drew national headlines because it allowed criminal charges if the mother’s behavior was “reckless.” That raised concerns that a mother who fell on the ice or was an avid jogger and suffered a miscarriage could be charged with a crime.  Herbert balked at signing that language and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, quickly revised the legislation to remove the word “reckless.”  Herbert vetoed the original legislation, HB12, Monday — his first veto as a governor — and signed the revised version, HB462.

“Intentional” Miscarriage Now Homicide In Utah [Jezebel]

In response to criticisms that the original bill could have sent a woman to prison for life for staying in an abusive relationship or falling down the stairs, legislators added the caveats that a woman may not be prosecuted if the death of her fetus “is caused by a criminally negligent or reckless act of the woman” or “is not caused by an intentional or knowing act of the woman.” So now a woman has to intentionally induce her own miscarriage in order to go to prison.

Utah Continues Reckless Efforts to Lock-Up Pregnant Women [huffington post]

Criminal laws, however, depend on application of intent standards and are enforced by police officers and prosecutors who have extraordinary discretion in deciding who will and will not be arrested. Because everything a pregnant woman does or does not do can affect pregnancy outcome, it is hard to come up with an example of a law that could be applied only to women who “truly” intend to end their pregnancies while ensuring that pregnant women who do not intend to terminate their pregnancies or risk harm to their fetuses are protected from police investigation, interrogation, arrest, and prosecution.

Choosing Abortion in Utah May Be Criminal Act [Ms.Magazine]

While it was revised to exempt legal abortion, the state’s existing abortion ban is so restrictive that it renders that exemption virtually meaningless.  Currently, abortion is illegal in Utah under most circumstances, per a state ban that NARAL Pro-Choice America calls both unconstitutional and unenforcable. Legal abortion is further restricted by mandatory delay and counseling laws, an abortion-refusal clause and laws inhibiting low-income women’s access.

Utah Criminalizes Illegal Abortion Charging Criminal Homicide [feministing]

This language isn’t really much better. Instead of recognizing that it could only be the most oppressive circumstances that would lead a young woman to have someone beat her in hopes of inducing a miscarriage, and therefore creating legislation that protects young women, they legislate against women.

Utah has a chance to pull its head out of its arches, and at least this bill has been slowed down, but we’re not out of the water yet, folks.  Keep spreading the word about how the Utah House and Senate hope to target women with their proposed anti-miscarriage law.

Utah Anti-Abortion Bill Citing ‘Reckless Act’ Is Withdrawn [The New York Times]

The original bill, which was sent to Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, for his consideration — and set off a firestorm of anxiety and criticism from abortion rights and women’s advocacy groups around the country — now goes back to the Legislature, neither signed nor vetoed.  The sponsor, Representative Carl D. Wimmer, a Republican, said he had removed a key clause that would have allowed prosecution under Utah’s criminal homicide laws for a “reckless act of the woman” that resulted in death to a fetus. Language will remain, he said, that makes a woman’s “intentional” actions, if resulting in the death of her fetus in an illegal abortion, a felony.

Quick Hit Update: Utah miscarriage criminalization bill withdrawn [feministing]

But don’t be fooled: the new legislation they create could still potentially criminalize women who have miscarriages or illegal abortions, and we can’t let that happen.

Good News: Utah Tones Down Miscarriage Bill. Bad News: It’s Still Murder [jezebel]

All this is in response to a 17-year-old girl who paid someone to beat her into miscarrying — the solution to which, clearly, is to throw her in jail. It apparently hasn’t crossed the legislators’ minds that improving access to safe, legal abortions — by, for instance, removing Utah’s parental-notification law — might prevent girls and women from resorting to such horrific tactics. Or, more likely, Utah still cares more about controlling women than about helping them.

“Not only would I not get married until everyone else can, I kind of am starting to get appalled by anybody who would get married in this day and age. Anyone who considers themselves for equal rights — to get married right now, seems very odd to me.”

- Sarah Silverman

From CNN via Jezebel.

In case you haven’t heard, the Utah House and Senate have passed a bill that aims to criminalize miscarriage.  This is discriminatory, sexist, hateful, repugnant bullsh*t, and a (very likely) signature away from becoming law.  The blogs have done a great job of raising consciousness about this issue, but I’m sadly not holding my breath for Utahns to riot enough to prevent this from happening.  Anyway, check out the posts because I can’t bring myself to come up with my own response to this crap.

I recommend starting out at RH Reality Check for the scoop.

From Jezebel

Utah’s new bill would apply throughout pregnancy. Given that 15-20% of recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, 80% of those in the first trimester, Utah could have a lot of work ahead.

From Feministing

It [the bill] could create cases where women are prosecuted for having an unintentional miscarriage if there is any indication of “reckless behavior,” like drink alcohol and miscarry, or do any number of other things that could be deemed “reckless.”

From Amplify

Women in physically abusive relationships could be criminally liable for not leaving their partner, regardless of their ability to do so safely or securely. Women seeking lawful abortion may be guilty of criminal homicide if her physician failed to follow exact procedures set forth in the law.

From Feministe

The concern here isn’t really about fetuses or life or any of that. It’s about punishing women.

On the possibility of a female president: “I don’t see it happening because I don’t see one coming up the line in either party.”

On Hillary Clinton: “People don’t want to elect a feminist because they are not likeable. You have to be likeable to be elected.”

On the other hand: “Sarah Palin is the total package. She’s got a cute husband. She’s got a lot of kids.”

Keep it classy, Phyllis.  From Politics Daily via Jezebel.

When I was a little girl I loved Bill Nye the Science Guy.  I am only slightly ashamed to admit that he was quite possibly my first celebrity crush until I was old enough to realize how old he was in comparison to me.  I am far less ashamed to admit my current celebrity crush on the intelligent, charismatic, and generally awesome Rachel Maddow.  So when Rachel invites Bill to explain science-y things on her show, it’s a match made in Wizzle heaven. In the clip below (5:45 mark), Bill explains why excess snow in places that don’t usually get snow does not disprove global warming.

If there are two things the world could use more of they’re easy to understand scientists and level-headed fact-presenting news providers.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Special note: Happy 200th post to us!  It’s been a fantastic (and challenging) exercise to develop and maintain my own little feminist scrapbook here and it’s been a pleasure to share it with you.  Here’s to 200 more!

“We call on opponents of a woman’s right to choose to end the practice of inflammatory rhetoric and tactics that inspire this kind of violent action from the most extreme factions of the anti-choice movement. No other abortion provider’s family should have to endure the tragedy of seeing their loved one killed for providing an essential and legal health service to women.”

- Nancy Keenan

The president of NARAL Pro-Choice America in response to to a jury’s conviction of Scott Roeder as guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Dr. George Tiller.  From here.

Wait, what?

So we already know that Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain, is a rebellious republican who supports gay marriage, but now his wife, Cindy McCain, is speaking out as well.  From the No H8 campaign:

Aligning yourself with the platform of gay marriage as a Republican still tends to be very stigmatic, but Cindy McCain wanted to participate in the campaign to show people that party doesn’t matter – marriage equality isn’t a Republican issue any more than it is a Democratic issue. It’s about human rights, and everybody being treated equally in the eyes of the law that runs and protects this country.

File this under “Things that make you go ‘hmm…’” – but in a good way.

Shoutouts to feministing for this one!

I hope that you were able to take a moment today to think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the other civil rights and peace activists who have made our world so much better at the cost of their own pain, suffering, and sadly untimely deaths.  Feministing has a great list of links to posts about MLK and the importance of his memory, and F-Bomb has a great short bio posted as well.  In case you’d like a refresher, his “I have a dream” speech is below, in it’s entirety.

“There’s a direct connection between a woman’s ability to plan her family, space her pregnancies, and give birth safely, and her ability to get an education, work outside the home, support her family, and participate fully in the life of her community.

When a girl becomes a mother before she becomes literate, when a woman gives birth alone and is left with a permanent disability, when a mother toils daily to feed her large family but cannot convince her husband to agree to contraception, these struggles represent suffering that can and should be avoided. They represent potential that goes unfulfilled. And they also represent an opportunity to extend critical help to women worldwide and the children who depend on them.

Investing in the health of women, adolescents, and girls is not only the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do.”

- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
Remarks on the 15th Anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development

Full transcript here via Jezebel.

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