As we are seeing more states legalizing marijuana and same sex marriage, one may be led to believe our nation has discovered a progressive bent. Yet, gridlock has not prevented a state level war on abortion rights and the advance of the “personhood” rights for fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses.
In an outstanding New York Times Op-Ed story entitled “The Civil Rights of Pregnant Women,” Lynn Paltrow and Jeanne Flavin expose the dangerous and increasing risks to all pregnant women. Unbelievable as it is heartbreaking, this article is a sad commentary on a nation that has lost its way in a frenzy of legal and police action aroused by fringe views that have leached their way into our everyday lives.
These stories highlight an outrageous situation.
“Based on the belief that he had an obligation to give a fetus a chance for life, a judge in Washington, D.C., ordered a critically ill 27-year-old woman who was 26 weeks pregnant to undergo a cesarean section, which he understood might kill her. Neither the woman nor her baby survived.
“In Iowa, a pregnant woman who fell down a flight of stairs was reported to the police after seeking help at a hospital. She was arrested for “attempted fetal homicide.”
“In Utah, a woman gave birth to twins; one was stillborn. Health care providers believed that the stillbirth was the result of the woman’s decision to delay having a cesarean. She was arrested on charges of fetal homicide.
“In Louisiana, a woman who went to the hospital for unexplained vaginal bleeding was locked up for over a year on charges of second-degree murder before medical records revealed she had suffered a miscarriage at 11 to 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“A 22-year-old in South Carolina who was eight months pregnant attempted suicide by jumping out a window. She survived despite suffering severe injuries. Because she lost the pregnancy, she was arrested and jailed for the crime of homicide by child abuse.
Last year, Paltrow and Jeanne Flavin published a peer-reviewed study documenting 413 arrests or equivalent actions depriving pregnant women of their physical liberties. This body of work provides a sobering report of the power of the state over pregnant women’s liberty and justice:
“The principle at the heart of contemporary efforts to end legal abortion is that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses are persons or at least have separate rights that must be protected by the state. The same rationale provided the justification for the deprivation of pregnant women’s physical liberty, as well as of the right to medical decision making, medical privacy, bodily integrity and, in one case, the woman’s right to life.”