Miscarriage Is Not Your Fault And Not A Crime
February 25, 2011 6 Comments
A new bill waiting for approval holds that a miscarriage is murder, and that mothers who can’t reach full term should face the death penalty. It’s a fact that for every pregnancy there is a chance of miscarriage and these numbers are probably higher than you think.
It’s also true that for a lot of women this is a time when they feel truly alone in dealing with their loss. Their partner won’t truly understand because he can never be pregnant himself. And well-meaning people who say you can always get pregnant again are missing the point completely that this is actually a death in the family these women are dealing with. Thankfully, there are a lot of support groups and services available to help these women and their families.
The overall chance of miscarriage is 15 percent. But this will depend on various factors. For example, the overall risk for a woman who is 25 to 29-years-old is 10 percent but for a woman 40 to 44-years-old is is 41 percent.
What causes miscarriage? It could be genetic factors, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, blood pressure problems, illnesses, effects of prescription drugs, effects of cigarette smoking, effects of illegal drugs, physical trauma for the mother, or many other factors.
As you can see, other than stopping smoking, doing drugs and making sure any prescription meds you take are approved by a doctor, most reasons for miscarriage are completely out of a woman’s control.
This is why I am appalled, scared, and dumbfounded by a bill in Georgia that is attempting to turn miscarriage into a crime deserving of the death penalty.
I hope the courts will seek medical advice before they do anything further with this and I hope that leads them to see that miscarriage should not be a crime.
Specifically, the bill states that the women will have to prove “no human involvement whatsoever in the causation” of the miscarriage. But what this means and how it’s defined is not specified.
Really, I don’t think that miscarriage should be criminalized even when they do find out that the woman did something to help it along. If a woman wants to end her pregnancy then that’s her business. Otherwise it would be the same as criminalizing abortion and a woman’s right to choose and obviously I am pro-choice. And it’s certainly not deserving of the death penalty.
But to subject a woman who is grieving the loss of her child to a criminal investigation is beyond cruel. Sure, some women might be happy if they didn’t want to be pregnant in the first place. And others might recover just fine. But it’s still a death and a sensitive time and these women should not be treated like criminals and should not be facing their own death trials.
Contact the author here: mack@morningquickie.com
Horrific! I don’t think even the Nazis came up with that one. Surely such a bill can’t be passed, SURELY?
This can’t be real.
I doubt it’ll become law, but it’s definitely true. (Mick)
As a woman who is currently going through the nightmare of a stillbirth, I needed to read this. Even though I know it was not my fault, bills like this still make me feel like it somehow is my fault. So now I have extra guilt and anger to deal with because I would like nothing more than to punch this guy in the face – even though my morals tell me that violence is wrong.
It is doubtful that the bill will get passed, but it’s still disturbing, because this bill is not the isolated work of a lone crackpot, as some are willing to pass it off as. It’s reflective of an increasingly common discourse that puts the life of a zygote, embryo or fetus above the rights of the woman who may be carrying it. Not just the rights of woman, but in some cases even the life of the woman carrying.
I recently reread this book before recommending it to couples I had counseled following their pregnancy losses. Six years after its publication, Carol Cirulli Lanham’s book still speaks with immediacy and compassion, guiding parents through the agonizing process of mourning their previous loss, contemplating a new baby and coping with an always anxiety provoking subsequent pregnancy. My only suggestion for improvement, in what I hope will be a new edition some day, is the inclusion of an index to help guide readers to specific topics. Otherwise, this book provides couples with support and hope as they face a difficult period in their lives, a situation which only people who have been there can truly understand.