By Carol van Strum | Astrology notes by Eric are in Comment #25
On Monday, March 8, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law a bill making girls and women who miscarry criminally liable for murder when their miscarriages are caused by “intentional or knowing acts.” The governor signed the bill after vetoing its original version, which also included “reckless” acts; the word reckless was deleted from the signed version, which in its entirety is a catalog of multiple negatives:
“A woman is not guilty of criminal homicide of her own unborn child if the death of her unborn child…is not caused by an intentional or knowing act of the woman.” (The only exception specified is that “a woman is not criminally liable for seeking to obtain, or obtaining, an abortion that is permitted by law.”) This language may seem harmless enough. Yet in fact, any miscarriage, besides a legal abortion, could be put on trial, and whether the act was “intentional or knowing” would be up to the jury to decide. The law is written so that it presumes the woman is guilty and must prove that she is not guilty — in itself a violation of the Constitutional right of presumed innocence.
Both versions of the bill are extremely controversial, and removal of the word reckless cured none of its defects. Most notably, the vague language of the law criminalizes any behavior that might contribute to miscarriage, potentially making pregnancy — or even sex itself — a criminal act, since up to 20 percent of pregnancies normally end in miscarriage. This is grief enough, without facing the risk of prosecution for homicide.