It's good, but it can get ugly - fast.

Okay, so one of my friends on Twitter recently Re-tweeted this lovely link: http://www.alternet.org/rights/145956/utah_governor_signs_controversial_law_charging_women_and_girls_with_murder_for_miscarriages

And I can see points for how this is good, and points for how this is bad.

First off, a bit of background on myself: As far as the abortion issue is concerned, I technically fall into both camps. Which is to say, I'm Pro-Life, but I'm also Pro-Choice. And what I mean by that is, I'd rather people not get abortions. There are plenty of people in this country and Canada who are unable to conceive, and they would LOVE to be able to adopt your baby if you don't want to (or simply cannot) keep it. Second, I've seen pictures of what happens to a baby when it's aborted; I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Frankly, I would prefer that the only time a baby is aborted is when the carriage of or birth of the child would endanger the mother's life. But, ultimately, I also believe it should be a woman's choice. This doesn't mean I have to like or even agree with the choice, but it should still be their choice nonetheless.

From what this bill was borne from, apparently a teenager accidentally got herself pregnant, her boyfriend threatened to leave her if she had the baby, and since she didn't want him to leave, she paid someone to beat her up, with the sole purpose of trying to loose the baby. It didn't work, but she still did this. Under this new law, she would have been charged with attempted murder of the unborn child. Since she was already 7 months along (iirc), I can see the reasoning in this; babies are born prematurely at 7 months. If someone pays someone to abort their baby in any way, then I can see them being charged with murder for that. (As I recall, the normal cut-off for being able to abort a baby legally is 3-6 months, I think. Could be as little as 3; not sure on that.)

But, there are a lot of gray areas, here, and that's what concerns me the most.

When I was in high school, I remember one of the math teachers had a miscarriage; her body suddenly rejected the baby, from what I understand. For the next few weeks after it happened, she walked around with such a haunted look on her face, it was painful to see her. And then, of course, you really don't know what to say to a person in that kind of situation; "sorry for your lose" just doesn't seem to cut it.

The thing is, under this law, all it could take is someone saying, "X did it on purpose!" to cause the woman in question to not only be traumatized by her sudden lose, but further traumatized by suddenly being arrested and charged with murder. Don't try to tell me it would never happen; everyone knows how vicious and vengeful women can be - especially if it's a question of woman Y being upset because her boyfriend left her for woman X, married woman X, and when tried to have a baby, she miscarried. If the woman is still seething enough, well hey~! Having your ex-boyfriend's wife charged with murder would be a grand revenge if a woman is that vindictive.

-Will- that ever happen? Possibly not. But it's still possible that it could. There's also the possibility of idiot kids playing that as a joke, not knowing how far it could go, but that's another matter.

Thing is, there are all kinds of ways a woman can lose a baby, on purpose or not. My great-aunt lost her baby when someone on the bus pushed her when she was 6 months along, and she fell - on the baby, who literally burst out of the uterus wall. Lots of blood, and the ambulance wasn't able to get there in time to save the baby. Said great-aunt had to have an emergency hysterectomy, to top it all off - no kids again, ever, and iirc, that would have been her first. Now, under this law, who would be charged? the person who pushed her, or my great-aunt, for not doing enough to fall differently (so as to save the baby)?

So, I like it, and I don't like it at the same time. Regardless, makes me glad I don't live in Utah.