Ladies, please have your womb reports to me by 5pm.
Published by punkass marc June 7th, 2007 in Bodily Autonomy, Rights? What rights?, What Patriarchy?Our country’s obsession with fetal privilege is supposedly all about loving those darling clumps of cells. Punishing dirty girlz is theoretically just one of its side effects.
Ladies and gentlepeeps of the jury, I present to you people’s #1488760985770 in the case against this ridiculous claim: the story of Christine Hutchinson. Christine is being charged with concealing the death of a child. She had also been charged with “abuse of a corpse,” but that gem’s been dropped.
What did Ms. Hutchinson do do deserve these charges? She had a miscarriage 15-20 weeks into her pregnancy and didn’t tell doctors or the authorites. She then stored the fetus in her freezer in some bags and a beer carton.
Now, I’m not gonna pretend I’m not squicked out by someone keeping a miscarried fetus next to the frozen peas, but has this woman done anything criminal?
I suppose she could have caused the miscarriage, except she didn’t:
The county medical examiner determined the fetus died in utero, apparently from natural causes.
So what we’re left with is a woman who accidentally lost her child being brought up on charges because she didn’t tell Poppa Police or Daddy Doctor that her baby box broke. Apparently, all dudes, including those who didn’t have anything to do with getting the woman pregnant, have a right to full status reports on her ladyparts once any sperm’s gotten up in there.
Maybe the responsible thing to do would be to report the accident, but the only reason you’d try to criminalize the failure to do so would be to remind women that their rights are subordinate to their fetus (even if it’s dead) and the Male Right to Know.
Meanwhile, I’m sure at least some of you stopped and thought, “hey, wait a minute, since when is a 15-20 weeek old fetus legally considered a child? Isn’t the concealment of the death of a child intended to prevent people from covering up the death of kids who’ve actually been born?” Uh, yeah, I thought so, too. Maybe some of the lawyers in the audience will correct me, but this seems like a scary slippery slope.
Sigh.
What else is new.
10 Responses to “Ladies, please have your womb reports to me by 5pm.”
- 1 Pingback on Jun 9th, 2007 at 4:52 am
- 2 Pingback on Jun 11th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
More creative attempts to redefine a fetus as a “child”. What kills me is how a lot of anti-choice men take their logic of pitting fetus against pregnant woman to the next logical level and start metaphorically treating wombs like cages. By their own measures, it would be safer to grow babies outside of evil women’s bodies. That they can’t is just more evidence of a feminist conspiracy.
“hey, wait a minute, since when is a 15-20 weeek old fetus legally considered a child? Isn’t the concealment of the death of a child intended to prevent people from covering up the death of kids who’ve actually been born?”
That is precisely why we cannot give ground here. We cannot let anti-choicers simultaneously put women at risk due to their fetus-worship while endangering children by falsely conflating six-month-olds with small clumps of cells. Laws like this one not only devalue women, but also distract efforts from actually protecting children.
I have an idea: let’s prosecute parents who are actually abusive, as opposed to women who miscarry. Shocking, I know. *sigh*
She should have showed it to her living kids like Rick Santorum, then she’d get a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
For the protection of “society”, how about Pregnancy Probation?
As soon as the little line on the pee-test turns blue, all females must turn themselves in to their local police agency. There, they will be fitted with one of those “Tracking Bracelets” like Paris Hilton just got.
Through a video link over the phone, the State’s pregnancy will be monitored, with “The Vessel” checking in every couple hours so The State can ensure the safety of its newest proto-Citizen.
If the proto-citizen is endangered, he vessel will be remanded into State custody for the protection of the State’s asset.
These measures must be taken because the proto-citizen’s proto-existence is simply TOO IMPORTANT to risk.
After the vessel gives birth, The State will decide whether to discard the vessel or not. Vessels which consistently produce sub-standard citizens will be disposed of…
It’s all about life, dammit…
“By their own measures, it would be safer to grow babies outside of evil women’s bodies.”
Would the resulting issue be created without sin?…
That is an interesting story. You’d think that after a miscarriage you’d you’d go see a doctor anyway and I wonder if she didn’t, but the practical problem of what to do with a fetus that has bailed on you is not one that I’ve ever considered before. Poor woman.
Yeah, it seems like there’s a good chance that the poor woman was all there.
Very interesting post!