Mississippi, Alabama and some other states are prosecuting women whose babies are either still born or die shortly after birth if they have taken illicit drugs during their pregnancy under "depraved heart murder," "chemical endangerment," and "fetal homocide" laws (http://www.alternet.org/story/151508/15-year-old_girl_faces_life_in_prison_for_a_miscarriage_why_conservatives_are_criminalizing_pregnant_women?akid=7232.290103.LP33Xx&rd=1&t=3). Consider the following:
"Amanda Kimbrough is one of the women who have been ensnared as a result of the law being applied in a wholly different way. During her pregnancy her fetus was diagnosed with possible Down's syndrome and doctors suggested she consider a termination, which Kimbrough declined as she is not in favour of abortion. The baby was delivered by caesarean section prematurely in April 2008 and died 19 minutes after birth. Six months later Kimbrough was arrested at home and charged with "chemical endangerment" of her unborn child on the grounds that she had taken drugs during the pregnancy – a claim she has denied.* "That shocked me, it really did," Kimbrough said. "I had lost a child, that was enough." She now awaits an appeal ruling from the higher courts in Alabama, which if she loses will see her begin a 10-year sentence behind bars. "I'm just living one day at a time, looking after my three other kids," she said. "They say I'm a criminal, how do I answer that? I'm a good mother."
And that is not all: "At least 38 of the 50 states across America have introduced fetal homicide laws that were intended to protect pregnant women and their unborn children from violent attacks by third parties – usually abusive male partners – but are increasingly being turned by renegade prosecutors against the women themselves."
* Note: The 10 yr sentence is a plea bargain instead of a life sentence. I suspect that the prosecution has a witness or witnesses to testify she was taking drugs and perhaps other things.
What will be next? Will women who have not had a child by a certain age be jailed for not having had a child?
Why are we fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan while we have our own religious extremests right here at home?
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