Monday, January 10, 2005

A Real Miscarriage Of Justice

According to a proposed law in the Virginia legislature, a woman must report a miscarriage to police within 12 hours of delivery or be punished by up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. See Va HB1677.

Of all the legislation proposed to limit reproductive rights in recent years, this might be the worst I have heard.

I understand why people are against abortion (they are misguided and unChristian), and I understand why these whackos want to limit reproductive freedom (they hate the Constitution). But, to punish a grieving mother for failure to chat with police about her miscariage within twelve hours of her loss borders on heinous! This is preposterous and inhumane, if the woman is not in a medical facility!

Some women have miscarried at home, cleaned themselves and visited their doctor long after they have rested and eaten and regained emotional composure. Sometimes days and days after the loss. This is not unusual.

The elected official responsible for this piece of mysogynist legislation is an electronics engineer named John A. (Jumpin' Jack) Cosgrove, the (R)eich Wing delegate from Chesapeake, Virginia, (House District 78).

How much do Baptist electronics engineers know about reproductive rights! NOTHING! They are just against them with no thought about their importance or their role in humanity, or history, or the future.

I guess his wife, Sue Ann, would abide by the law if Michael and Brian lost a sibling all of a sudden, late at night, in a spontaneoue abortion (the medical term for a miscarriage). Jumpin' Jack would drag his bleeding or healing, but mourning (and lovely), wife down to the local sheriff and report her as a spontaneous abortionist. After Sue Ann bucked-up and stopped all her pansy-ass, liberal-leaning weeping for the loss of her child (which loss must have been God's will, after all), she would have to provide the police the following:

- place of occurrence
- usual residence of patient (mother)
- full maiden name of patient
- medical record number and social security number of patient
- Hispanic origin, if any, and race of patient
- age of patient
- education of patient
- sex of fetus
- patient married to father
- previous deliveries to patient
- single or plural delivery and order of plural delivery
- date of delivery
- date of last normal menses and physician's estimate of gestation
- weight of fetus in grams
- month of pregnancy care began (sic)
- number of prenatal visits
- when fetus died
- congenital malformations, if any
- events of labor and delivery
- medical history for this pregnancy
- other history for this pregnancy
- obstetric procedures and method of delivery
- autopsy
- medical certification of cause of spontaneous fetal death
- signature of attending physician or medical examiner including title, address and date signed
- method of disposal of fetus
- signature and address of funeral director or hospital representative
- date received by registrar
- registrar's signature
- registration area and report numbers

That's right! These are the items required by Virginia law to be provided when reporting a miscarriage. Jumpin' Jack Cosgrove's legislation provides for no change to that requirement. So, ladies, keep your file cabinet close at hand while pregnant in Virginia, because you have only twelve hours to provide all this documentation!

What is this really about?

Reich Wing whackos like Jumpin' Jack and all the other asses in the South want to eliminate all abortion, so they are trying to criminalize spontaneous abortions. With this thrown into the fray, the citizenry, in their bewilderment over such a proposal, will be more likely to agree to criminalizing elective abortion, because it is unreasonable to punish those who suffer a spontaneous abortion, and by gosh-darnit, somebody's gotta be punished for all the dead, unwanted fetuses!

Suddenly, banning elective abortion seems reasonable.

Isn't that what this is about?

This is insane! This is dangerous and scary and these people have to be stopped.

America is being destroyed by whacko Southerners, unable to wipe the Jesus from their eyes, who believe that their religious freakdom is the basis for recrafting our nation as some kind of post-modern theocracy.

The "Chief Patron" of this legislation can be reached at the addresses below:

Delegate John A. Cosgrove
General Assembly Building, Room 416
Capitol Square
Richmond, Virginia 23219

(804) 698-1078

Del_Cosgrove@house.state.va.us

or

John A. Cosgrove
P.O. Box 15483
Chesapeake, Virginia 23328

(757) 547-3422

Please write to him, or call him, to share your thoughts. Better yet, if you know anybody in Virginia, ask them to call or write.



Some discussion at Daily KOS.

Whacko John A. (Jumpin' Jack) Cosgrove's Legislative Biography.

I found this at Randi Rhodes' Message Board.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Amazon Odyssey
by Ti-Grace Atkinson








No comments: