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Bill to Outlaw Miscarriages Enrages Left

Utah may punish women who lose fetus after 'reckless' action
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 24, 2010 3:55 PM CST
Bill to Outlaw Miscarriages Enrages Left
Better not lose that baby in Utah, miss.   (Shutterstock)

A Utah bill designed to outlaw do-it-yourself abortions has drawn national attention, with bloggers railing that the law could punish women for accidental miscarriages. The bill, which has already passed both chambers of Utah’s legislature, would allow women to be charged with homicide if they committed an “intentional, knowing or reckless act” that led to a miscarriage. It was created after a woman allegedly paid a man to beat her until she miscarried.

But critics warned that the legal definition of “reckless” is so broad that women could be jailed for not wearing a seatbelt, or returning to an abusive spouse, notes Jezebel. It’s also the rare abortion law directly targeting women. “For all these years the anti-choice movement has said, ‘We want to outlaw abortion, not put women in jail,'” one pro-choice group tells RH Reality Check, “but what this law says is, ‘No, we really want to put women in jail.'” (More Utah stories.)

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