Bill Would Imprison Rape Victims Who Receive Abortions

[rdowns]

I know NM legislature is solidly blue and this will never pass, but this is just ****ing crazy. Wouldn't surprise me if ALEC was behind this and using NM as a trial balloon. Your move Virginia, Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama…

Should a recently introduced bill in New Mexico become law, rape victims will be required to carry their pregnancies to term during their sexual assault trials or face charges of “tampering with evidence.”

Under HB 206, if a woman ended her pregnancy after being raped, both she and her doctor would be charged with a felony punishable by up to 3 years in state prison:

Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.

Link

[jeremy h]

Perhaps should the defendant be found guilty - the 'object' or 'member' that was used to commit the crime should removed so it can preserved in the vaults as evidence. That might even things up in suitably Biblical way.

[likemyorbs]

I wouldn't mind taking all our citizens who think this way and putting them into quarantine. They're really sick.

[mcrain]

The alternative is to require the state to pay for, and perform, whatever procedures are necessary to immediately remove the "evidence" from the body so as to preserve it for future trial.

[niuniu]

Can't the physician simply take a sample and reserve it for a certain period of time for each abortion and courts can apply to have the sample tested in some criminal cases.

[mcrain]

Originally Posted by niuniu

Can't the physician simply take a sample and reserve it for a certain period of time for each abortion and courts can apply to have the sample tested in some criminal cases.

Yes, it's called an abortion. Take the sample. I'm sure the victim won't mind.

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

In case you thought that the war on women would go quiet for the next few months, what with all the issues about taxes and government spending to deal with.

[niuniu]

Originally Posted by mcrain

Yes, it's called an abortion. Take the sample. I'm sure the victim won't mind.

They could take a fetal blood sample pre-abortion, run it for DNA, then destroy it. The victim wouldn't have any psychological tie. Would all be voluntary of course.

[Moyank24]

It looks like she's made some amendments because, of course, she didn't exactly mean to victimize the victim.

After local news organizations printed stories about the bill, Brown received a flood of complaints, and removed her contact information from her website.

Finally, one day after introducing the bill in the state legislature, she posted an amended version of it that targets “a person who commits criminal sexual penetration or incest and who procures an abortion of a fetus resulting from the crime with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime is guilty of tampering with evidence,” the text of the revised bill states.

While the new version of the bill explicitly prohibits the prosecution of women who have an abortion after being raped,it is unclear just how many rapists actually pay for their victims to have their pregnancies terminated. Brown could not be reached for comment.

Source


Seriously, how do these people get elected?