LGBT discrimination isn’t the only heinous result of these so-called “religious liberty” laws
by digby
I wrote a piece for Salon today about how heartening it is that so many people have fought back against Indiana’s “religious liberty” law to allow discrimination against gays and lesbians. I pointed out that this is part of a new doctrine being promulgated by the social conservatives as a way to protect their right to be intolerant, a doctrine given some substance by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case. Unfortunately, the specifics of that case did not provoke the kind of outcry the gay discrimination did, especially in Indiana where the religious right is now using the criminal law against pregnant women:
The case of Bei Bei Shuei, a Chinese immigrant living in Indiana came to international attention in 2011 when she was charged with murder under the states “feticide” law when she attempted suicide while pregnant. The law had been originally intended to be used against third parties who killed a fetus while intending harm against the mother but this shocking case was the first in the state to use the law to prosecute the pregnant woman herself. After years of legal fights Shuei, who served 435 days in jail pending trial, eventually accepted a plea bargain for time served. The prosecutor in the case insisted that they never intended to use the law to monitor the behavior of pregnant women.
That insistence is especially interesting in light of a similar Indiana case that unfolded under the radar as the whole country was up in arms over the new law allowing business owners to discriminate. A woman by the name of Purvi Patel was convicted of feticide and neglect of a dependent for what they called an illegal abortion. Irin Carmen at MSNBC reported on the case:
On Monday, Patel, a 33-year-old woman living with her parents near South Bend, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, of which 10 will be suspended. These prosecutors told msnbc that Patel had, in fact, been convicted of having an illegal abortion, which they said she had induced by pills ordered over the internet.
Ken Cotter, the prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph’s County, said one of Patel’s crimes had been flouting the state’s abortion laws.
“There are certain requirements that the legislature wants to make sure that you go through before an abortion is sanctified by society,” said Cotter. “If you don’t go through those procedures, then the legislature has determined that that’s a crime.”
In Indiana, failing to follow proper abortion procedures can get you 20 years behind bars. Indeed the prosecutor in this case told MSNBC that “[a] more accurate title [for “feticide”] would be ‘unlawful termination of pregnancy.’ He went on to fatuously declare that if the legislature didn’t intend for the feticide law to include “the mother or the person who is pregnant” they could have said so. (One wonders what other person he thinks might be pregnant than the mother.)
There’s a lot more about this problem at the link. There are literally hundreds of cases of women being persecuted by the courts for alleged criminal behavior against their fetuses. This includes refusing certain medical procedures, taking drugs and otherwise failing to take proper care of the gestation vessel (also known as “themselves”.) And it’s getting worse.
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