Fortunately for the people of New Mexico, the state legislature is controlled by the Democrats. But this is a perfect example of the sorts of things those creative Republicans are up to if you let down your guard down, or trust them for even a minute:
A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.
House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for “tampering with evidence.”
“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime,” the bill says.
Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.
Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a progressive nonprofit opposing the bill, called it “blatantly unconstitutional” on Thursday.
“The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” he said. “According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case.“
Impeach this lunatic for violating her oath to uphold the Constitution. This violates Due Process, Equal Protection and a woman’s right to Privacy all in one bill!
I think this answers your question to supporters of forced pregnancy, “would you make women criminals?” It’s obvious that the answer for Rethug incest proponents is, “Hell yeah!”
Some Dem should introduce a bill that upon the delivery of the baby it will immediately be legally adopted by a member of the NM legislature who voted for this bill and that member shall be responsible for all costs of caring for said child until age 18 or until graduation from college if the child chooses to go to college.
Each member of the legislature who voted for the bill will take their turn in adoption. There will be no limit on the number of children each shall be required to adopt and raise.
It’s a war! Law by law and State by State.
My suggested defense against such an idiot law: say “I told the doctors that I’d been raped, and asked them to save the aborted fetus for DNA testing. The “evidence” you’re looking for has not been destroyed, it is in that freezer over there.”
After all, paternity testing has come a long way since Charlie Chaplin was asked at a paternity hearing to hold the baby in his arms and let the jury decide whether it looked like him. (Blood tests proved that Charlie was not the father, the jury, not trusting science, decided otherwise.)
On a more serious note, I wonder whether they propose these whacked out laws to make the rest of their agenda seem more reasonable. Asking for the moon, settling for half of it.