Give me Absolute Control...

... Over every living soul, asks the Utah government.  Every single living soul.  The planned bill would allow for homicide prosecution against women whose actions may have led to the death of their unborn children.  This came out of the story of a young girl who paid a man to beat her, in hopes that it would trigger a miscarriage. 

What exactly is wrong with this picture?

Let's start with the obvious.  Women miscarry.  Sometimes spontaneously, often for no apparent reason at all.  To my knowledge, the last time punishing a woman for that was legally permissable in a Western country was during the Spanish Inquisition.  There is a difference between a miscarriage, and working actively to bring one on.  However, the way this law is written, it puts the onus on the woman to prove that she did indeed have a natural miscarriage, and did not actively seek to make it happen.  If a woman has acted in some way that could be deemed reckless and she miscarries, she's considered atfault for homicide.  The law does not define reckless behavior.  Considering the notoriety of Utah prosecutors to try for demented convictions, it's really only a matter of time before some woman is thrown in prison because she ran a stoplight that led to an accident, or she ate a vegan diet and miscarred (no I'm not suggesting there's a medical correlation between the two, as much as the beef lobby would like to suggest that there is).

This whole thing speaks to some much larger issues.  Utah is not exactly the easiest state in which to access birth control.  It's expensive, as the government is unwilling to help pay for it, and minors cannot even access the products without parental permission.  Unless the government starts locking women in chastity belts, this set of circumstances is going to lead to unplanned pregnancies, particularly in low-income demographics.  Terminations are also difficult to access, as public funding cannot be used for them except in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is in danger.  Many private insurers also refuse to fund the procedure.  How is anyone shocked that women are turning to illegal, and dangerous, methods to end their pregnancies?  I will not weigh in on the morals of abortion, here.  I'm more concerned with the circumstances that are leading to this sort of desperation.  No birth control, no way to end a pregnancy, and, unless you are wealthy, no way to provide the health care and other amenities necessary to raise a child.  So the state insists that you give birth to this child, but won't do a thing to help you care for it, apparently not even allowing a full education.

Exactly what are proponents of this system trying to accomplish?  The argument against accessible contraceptives is that people ought not to have sex unless they want to get pregnant.  So really, withholding information about contraceptives, or access to them, is a way of attempting to control whether or not someone is having sex.  Is it really up to a legislative body, or even fellow citizens, to control such an intimate and personal aspect of another person's life?  Yes, sex carries certain risks.  However, almost every activity human beings engage in carries risks.  Part of being a person is being responsible about each activity you do, from driving to eating to sexual activity, doing the best you can to avoid unwanted consequences... ie, obey traffic laws so you don't get into an accident, eat healthy food so you don't become diabetic.  Sex, however, is a different story.

This system may speak to that militant mentality that all bodies are needed to raise up an army against those who would 'threaten freedom', as Dubya so eloquently put it.  So women become convenient brood mares for the state, producing bodies that can eventually become cannon fodder.  I think this law goes even deeper than that.  It speaks to a widespread, rarely-declared belief that a woman's sole value lies within her procreative abilities.  If she does not want to use those abilities, she is given the choice of two punitive options... not use her own body as she sees fit, or pay a large amount of money into the system for the privilege of engaging in sex without risking pregnancy.  How is that freedom?