Iowa Woman Jailed for Thinking about an Abortion

Sounds far-fetched, right?  Well it isn't.  The anti-choice zealots aren't content to limiting a woman's access to safe and legal abortion, they're now thought police:

Ms. Taylor became light-headed and fell down a flight of stairs in her home. Paramedics rushed to the scene and ultimately declared her healthy. However, since she was pregnant with her third child at the time, Taylor thought it would be best to be seen at the local ER to make sure her fetus was unharmed.

That's when things got really bad and really crazy. Alone, distraught, and frightened, Taylor confided in the nurse treating her that she hadn't always been sure she'd wanted this baby, now that she was single and unemployed. She'd considered both adoption and abortion before ultimately deciding to keep the child. The nurse then summoned a doctor, who questioned her further about her thoughts on ending the pregnancy. Next thing Taylor knew, she was being arrested for attempted feticide. Apparently the nurse and doctor thought that Taylor threw herself down the stairs on purpose.

Yes, as if Ms. Taylor's existing problems weren't enough, the anti-choice zealots got her jailed for 2 days for thinking of having an abortion, even though she voluntarily went to the ER to assure the health of her fetus.  Funny how "pro-lifers" have never met a victim they don't want to punish.  After three weeks, the District Attorney declined to prosecute, but not because of the obvious encroachment on a woman's right to choose (similar laws for which this woman was held exist in 37 states), but because she was only in her second trimester, and not third when she fell.  No I'm not making this up, and unfortunately Ms. Taylor isn't alone:

Last March, Florida resident Samantha Burton was in week 25 of her pregnancy when she paid a visit to her doctor. Burton was showing signs of potential miscarriage, so her physician ordered bed rest. Burton explained that, as a working mother of two toddlers, bed rest simply wasn't a viable option and then proceeded to ask for a second medical opinion. Seems reasonable, right?

Her doctor, however, was having none of that. Rather than refer Burton for the desired second opinion, he instead felt it necessary to contact state authorities, who then proceeded to force Burton to be admitted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital against her will and undergo any procedure the doctor felt like prescribing. When Burton had the audacity to request a change in the hospital in which she was being treated, the court denied her request. Three days into her forced hospitalization, Burton miscarried.

Being forced to miscarry in a hospital bed for 3 days, to the anti-choice zealots it's wonderful, who cares about the traumatic effect on the woman and her toddlers left at home?

In other news of anti-choice "victories", last March a Pennsylvanian teenager who sought an abortion without parental consent, was denied because the judge found her incapable of making an informed decision, because she had bad grammar:

After questioning her for more than an hour, the judge decided that she couldn't have the abortion, ruling she was not mature and capable of making an informed decision about the procedure. The decision surprised her lawyer, Randall McKinney of the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel, because bypass petitions are rarely denied.

In his March 24 opinion, Judge Ignelzi wrote that he found the teenager wasn't mature because, among other reasons, she had used bad grammar and had not asked her parents for permission. He also was not persuaded that the teenager's trip overseas several years earlier with her mother demonstrated maturity. His next step was ruling that the abortion was not in the teenager's best interest.

Not surprisingly the Judge was endorsed by People Concerned for the Unborn Child and LifePAC of Southwestern Pennsylvania.  Somehow the Judge determined she was mature enough to be a mother to a child, but not enough to make her own decisions regarding her reproductive organs.  Leave it to "pro-lifers" to make the best choices for the rest of us...even if it means confining a woman to a hospital-bed against her will, jailing them for having thought of an abortion, or denying the choice to a teenager because of her grammar.

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