Colorado’s “First Degree Homicide Of Unborn Child Bill” Passes 2nd Reading In House
10:51 pm - 03/18/2012What would appear to be on its face, a bill designed to allow criminal charges to be brought against third parties who injure a pregnant woman and her late-term, unborn child, turns out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Colorado’s Republican controlled House has passed the second reading on House Bill 1130. The final vote on the bill is expected early next week and could come as soon as Monday. It is expected to pass the House and then head to the Senate for debate. A similar bill died in committee earlier this session in the Democratic-controlled Senate. What does all this mean?
In early 2011, Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, introduced a bi-partisan bill which included similar language to House Bill 1130 with the following language added: ”The bill does not confer the status of ‘person’ upon a human embryo, fetus, or unborn child at any stage of development prior to live birth.“ Thereafter, Rep. Waller was attacked by a pro-life group (Colorado Right to Life) accusing him of giving up the “battle with the liberal, Godless, left-wing abortion industry.” Rep. Waller ended up killing his own bill. In the 2012 session, a new bill was sponsored by Rep. Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs, without the aforementioned language.
Is this “type” of bill unusual? Not really, but the failure to apply any limitations on the gestation period makes it ripe for debate. As of 2010, over 38 states had fetal homicide laws. What makes this so controversial at this time is the failure to place any developmental limitation on the age of the fetus. Of the 38 states with such laws, at least 20 states have fetal homicide laws that apply to the earliest stages of pregnancy and include such language as “any state of gestation,” “conception,” “fertilization” or “post-fertilization.”
These specific type of “fertilized egg” bills are being introduced and/or passed in Republican controlled Houses/Senates and have the potential of conferring “personhood” status on a fetus at any stage of development.
Colorado’s House Democrats have argued that it criminalizes abortion and acts as an end around on the voters of the state with its personhood language. The voters of Colorado have twice defeated personhood measures brought before them in 2008 and 2010. This bill attempts to skirt the voters and make the death of a fertilized egg or beyond, a homicide.
As reported by the Daily Kos, State Rep. Daniel Kagan (D) reported after the bill passed the second reading:
“…we were unable to prevent the Republican majority in the House from passing on second reading the First Degree Homicide of the Unborn Child bill. Under some circumstances, it makes both termination of pregnancy and the use of the morning after pill a homicide. It also confers personhood on a newly fertilized egg.”
So what do the Republicans say about the bill? According to the Denver Post, Rep. Waller believes Rep. Joshi’s bill is similar to a bill in California, “a very progressive state” (WTH? That is a debating point?) and Rep. Joshi has responded:
“If Democrats want to shield offenders who commit crimes against pregnant women, that’s their prerogative. If a pregnant women is beaten by an abusive husband or killed by a drunk driver, and her child does not survive, the perpetrator should not get away with those crimes.”
Rep. Joshi is playing off the outrage that occurred when a pregnant woman was injured by a hit and run driver and while her 34 week old baby was delivered successfully, he subsequently died. Had the driver been apprehended, no charges could have been brought for the death of the child under current Colorado law.
This purported outrage by the Republicans and their attempt to “save” unborn children is typical of what is occurring throughout the country and is just another example of the war on women and their reproductive rights and choices. If Rep. Joshi’s sole concern is the ability to charge a drunk driver or abusive husband who has injured an unborn child, then why not introduce legislation that would make it a crime with the bi-partisan language of Rep. Waller’s bill specifically denying the creation of personhood status on the fetus? Because criminal prosecution of individuals who may injure an unborn child is not the real focus of the Republican controlled House and none of the Republicans are willing to battle pro-life groups. It is all about controlling a woman’s right to choose and ‘personhood’ status.
If Rep. Waller hadn’t caved in last session, a bi-partisan bill would be in place and there would be no concern about the criminality of that drunk driver. Now, with a Democratic-controlled Senate, it is likely (although not guaranteed) that this bill will die, like the prior one, but for totally unrelated reasons.
As a woman who is really frustrated and disgusted with what is occurring throughout this country, I intend to be front and center at the March Against The War on Women scheduled for April 28, 2012.
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Debi Johnson-Champ can also be found on TheBlueSquirrel.org: My Left Nut and is behind the blog, The Blue Squirrel Diary. Follow Blue on Twitter @TheBlueSquirre1 (that’s a “one” at the end).Source
Also, I really hope this is some sick, last-ditch effort by all of these assholes to keep their party from going the way of the Whigs and dying out. Sadly, I know it's not, but I wish it was.
Edited at 2012-03-19 05:31 am (UTC)
It is, in 2012, in the United States, becoming dangerous to be a woman.
It's frightening how accurate this statement is.
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!
One of the things that's fascinating me the most about all of this bullshit is just how many times the ACTUAL SCIENCE is being completely dismissed as irrelevant!
(For the link-phobic, this leads to a group of volunteers who are willing to help women in states where abortion is becoming more difficult/impossible to obtain get to places where they can.)
... can someone answer a question for me? How does ANYONE with ANY kind of education at ALL, take someone who says something THAT ludicrous SERIOUSLY? I mean, SERIOUSLY, "left wing abortion industry"? How do you even understand English and not just laugh at that bullshit?
And I maintain that forced-birth activists are the World's Biggest Slacktivists. They don't want to actually have to DO anything, so they fight for the "rights" of embryos and fetuses. They don't fight for a better foster system, most of them don't adopt, they don't fight for better maternity care or a better nationwide policy for maternity/paternity leave, they don't fight for better sex ed or more easily accessible contraception. They want to be "warriors" in a fucking battle that requires them to do NOTHING. People that fucking useless should be shot into the goddamn sun.
...Which sort of creeps me out if there's a subset of conservatives somewhere collectively having birthday parties 9 months in advance of their actual birthdates.
*shudder*
Never mind that it would be impossible to come up with an accurate conception date in all but a *very* few cases.
I was JUST saying yesterday that Colorado was a good state re: reproductive rights. WELP. GUESS NOT.
Don't blame Democrats for being a coward and caving into anti-abortion groups by taking out wording from the bill that would make things specific. It's your fucking fault that you made this bill so confusing and that Democrats didn't have to vote for it.
You really don't care about women, Senator, no matter what you think here. That's on you, not the Democrats.
I am getting so god damn sick of reading shit like this. Every god damn day.
...it gives me this chill, because the way things are going in my personal life (and the way things are transpiring in the US), there's a good chance I will be married/living permanently in Japan sometime within the near future. And this makes me think "God, will this be the future? Where I visit the US and take pictures of all my American sisters in their full length, red dresses and giant, white bonnets?"
Fuck, I'm so defeated from reading all this shit. What are we supposed to do?
It gives the unborn legal status, something that's a gray area that could be exploited by the unscrupulous, :(.
This is one of the few times when I'm really disappointed with George Carlin. On an appearance with Bill Maher, he called abortion a "dead issue" that had "already been settled." While I love that he was that hopeful about our society, I hate that he was so blind to how much the GOP wants women to be second-class citizens (if citizens at all), :(.
Now there's someone who might benefit from a psyche evalutaion.
Thank god Hickenlooper would never, ever, ever sign it, even if it made it past the Senate.
Actually, this attitude helps to explain some of their awful behavior. They really do see it as an "industry," like car manufacturing or health insurance, where profits have to be made no matter what. That's probably where the idea of "drive-through abortions came in, :(.
When you look at it from that perspective, the perspective that abortion doctors are doing it to make money, rather than to help women get through a rough situation, you can see that part of their thinking.
Of course, the majority of it is still wanting to control women's choices and bodies because we can be trusted with CHILDREN, but not CHOICES, but even so - it's another piece of the disgusting GOP puzzle, :(.