Georgia Rep. wants to classify miscarriage as murder; suspend doctors licenses

Yesterday (Feb. 22) I did some research to "unconfuse" myself. I read this article about Georgia’s anti-abortion House Bill l introduced by Rep. Bobby Franklin, who was voted into office in 1996. Despite my confusion I clearly remembered Tea Party folk protesting about big government interfering in their lives. They carried posters at rallies. The posters labeled President Barack Obama a communist, Hitler, Stalin, dictator, big brother, illegal immigrant and more.

“Dictator,” is an interesting noun. It's meaning is not up for personal interpretation. Republicans have become the dictators instead of President Obama.

 Franklin recently introduced a bill in the Georgia legislature that threw me. He proposed to make abortion equivalent to murder. All miscarriages will be subjected to investigation by "proper authorities." I take this to mean Georgia police will make an arrest, and prosecutors will act quickly if a miscarriage appears “suspicious.”

I assume a woman’s personal medical records will be explored by strangers; a legitimate miscarriage can openly challenged or seriously questioned in court. We all know that “authorities” can go into overdrive, zealously turning an innocent miscarriage into a media circus, especially if the prosecutor is politically ambitious and pro-choice.

If a woman is suspected of self-aborting she will go on trial to prove she is innocent. She will have to hire a lawyer at her own expense, or get a ho-hum court appointed attorney, who will do a piss-poor job of defending her. If she has a private doctor or attends a clinic, the attending physician's career will be on the line until the “suspicious” miscarriage or suspected abortion is prosecuted in the courts. The physician and woman's reputations are at the mercy of a jury, the prosecutor and the court.

Franklin’s bill demands that a physician's license be suspended until everyone is satisfied that no abortion was performed. If there was an abortion, he wants the woman and doctor tried for murder.  Evidently, Franklin's wife or mother did not tell him that a miscarriage cannot be predicted or stopped, especially in the early stages of a complicated pregnancy.

Excerpt from House Bill I

The act of prenatal murder is murder and conspiracy to commit murder per se; (26) The act of prenatal murder has caused a significant reduction in the number of citizens in this state who would serve as workers, entrepreneurs, teachers, employees, and employers who would have significantly contributed to the prosperity and continuation of this state; and (27);

The failure to prosecute a violation of this Code section is a violation of the obligation of this state to provide all of its citizens with an equal protection of the laws. (b) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) 'Fetus' means a person at any point of development from and including the moment of conception through the moment of birth. Such term includes all medical or popular designations of an unborn child from the moment of conception such as conceptus, zygote, embryo, homunculus, and similar terms. (2) 'Prenatal murder' means the intentional removal of a fetus from a woman with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus; provided, however, that if a physician makes a medically justified effort to save the lives of both the mother and the fetus and the fetus does not survive, such action shall not be prenatal murder.

Such term does not include a naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a 'spontaneous abortion' and popularly as a 'miscarriage' so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event. (c) The act of prenatal murder is contrary to the health and well-being of the citizens of this state and to the state itself and is illegal in this state in all instances.

(d) Any person committing prenatal murder in this state shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be punished as provided in subsection (d) of Code Section 16-5-1.The license of any physician indicted for an alleged violation of this Code section shall be suspended until resolution of the matter. The license of any physician convicted of a violation of this Code section shall be permanently revoked. The provisions of this Code section shall be in addition to any other provisions relating to the killing of a fetus or any other person."

SECTION 2.1.

Said title is further amended in subsection (h) of Code Section 16-5-20, relating to simple assault, by striking current paragraph (1) and by redesignating current paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively.

SECTION 2.14.

A report of spontaneous fetal death for each spontaneous fetal death which occurs in this state shall be filed with the local registrar of the county in which the delivery occurred within 72 hours after such delivery in accordance with this Code section unless the place of fetal death is unknown, in which case a fetal death certificate shall be filed in the county in which the dead fetus was found within 72 hours after such occurrence. All induced terminations of pregnancy shall be reported.

Preparation and filing of reports of spontaneous fetal death shall be as follows: (1) When a dead fetus is delivered in an institution, the person in charge of the institution or that person's designated representative shall prepare and file the report; (2) When a dead fetus is delivered outside an institution, the physician in attendance at or immediately after delivery shall prepare and file the report; (3) When a spontaneous fetal death required to be reported by this Code section occurs without medical attendance at or immediately after the delivery or when inquiry is required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the 'Georgia Death Investigation Act,' the proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare and file the report within 30 days; and (4) When a spontaneous fetal death occurs in a moving conveyance and the fetus is first removed from the conveyance in this state or when a dead fetus is found in this state and the place of fetal death is unknown, the fetal death shall be reported in this state. The place where the fetus was first removed from the conveyance or the dead fetus was found shall be considered the place of fetal death.

This legislation, if passed, will cost Alabama millions of dollars. What federal agency will monitor these "cases"? What about all that talk about big government and wanting it out of citizens' lives? Tea Party politicians should stop talking with the forked tongue of a serpent.