Saturday, January 08, 2005

Miscarriage at home------->Keep it private---->Jail!

In essence this is the formula proposed by Delegate John Cosgrove of Virginia in his new Bill HB1677. The bill reads:

When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance, it shall be the woman's responsibility to report the death to the law-enforcement agency in the jurisdiction of which the delivery occurs within 12 hours after the delivery. A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

There is no law mandating that a woman must report a pregnancy to the Commonwealth, or even seek medical treatment for one. The Bill strictly proposes that a woman MUST report all miscarriages that do not occur under the guidance of a health-care professional (which is a common occurrence) to the State or else risk a misdemeanor violation that can carry up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. Though elective terminations of pregnancy are reported already only a "patient number" is required to identify the individual whereas this particular legislation would require the woman's full name, her history of prenatal care, her marital status, her education history, her previous deliveries (if any), and a number of other very intrusive data items.

Threats of governmental intrusion upon reproductive health must be taken seriously as the State has no business compounding the pain of a loss of a pregnancy by demanding women submit to a system external to the health care infrastructure. The assumed intent of the Bill is to reduce illegal abortions that are either reported as miscarriages or evade the system all together. However, the need to reduce illegal abortions does not supercede the absolute right for individual privacy particularly pertaining to sensitive issues of health in general and reproductive health specifically.

The reduction of governmental infringement upon individual rights should be an issue championed by an alleged "small-government" Republican, however there are clear moral overtones to this particular situation. Due to the overreaction and mass discrimination by an uninformed public to individuals with AIDS in the 1980's we now have laws that universally protect the right to privacy of an individual living with HIV/AIDS (even to the point of exclusion of the individual's partner to any pertinent information). This is the reality of governmental non-intrusion and it must be applied to areas where even our religious and moral sensibilities are most challenged, in this case, reproductive privacy, moral pluralism, and the role of government (or lack thereof) in these issues.

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