(no subject)

[asterroc]

Scanning the various ballot measures listed by CNN, it turns out that Arkansas has a ballot initiative to prevent adoptions or fostering by unmarried couples - straight or gay. Glad to know they consider me an evil sinner too!

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I am still uncertain on that issue. I'd be more likely to agree w/ legislation about the issue if it only applied to after the third trimester or some other later date - I mean, something like 25% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage before the sixth week, so why accuse someone of murder if there was a good chance there'd never be a viable infant?

If this measure were intended for the sole purpose of increasing penalties for assaults on pregnant women, I'd consider it a horrible way of doing so due to so many unintended consequences.

Here's another thought for you. If a woman miscarries, has an abortion for medical reasons, or has an abortion for personal reasons, what should happen to the remains of the embryo/fetus? Does the woman (and her family) have to right to bring the remains to an undertaker and bury/cremate them? Or is it medical waste? It's my understanding that many states treat it as medical waste and the woman isn't even allowed to do anything with it. But in the case of a miscarriage, there often aren't any remains at all.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that this would not be a well designed law if its only purpose was to increase penalties for assaults inducing miscarriages. That's obviously not what the law is about. Neither is it about punishing women for sipping a glass of alcohol after becoming pregnant.

I think that regardless of peoples' opinions of when life begins, it's terrible if laws prevent people from coping with a premature loss in the way they want to.