A few days ago, Carisa and I recorded a podcast about a rather disturbing law being proposed in Utah that would make “recklessness” during pregnancy a criminal offense, with a possibility of life imprisonment for feticide. Imagine my surprise to find these kinds of laws actually exist in 35 different states in the US.

Recently, a woman named Christine Taylor was arrested in Iowa for falling down a flight of stairs in her own home, and during her hospital visit, she confiding with her doctor that she had serious reservations about keeping the child. This sent alarm bells for the medical staff, who contacted the authorities.

Prosecutors chose not to go to trial because the fetus was still in the second trimester, and the draconian feticide law applies only in the final stages of pregnancy. If you don’t think this is outrageous, I don’t know what to tell you.

You can thank religious wackos for enacting these kinds of insane laws. The recognition of a fetus as a living entity entitled to the same rights as a sentient human being is a pretty spurious idea; how can an abortion be legal, but an illegal one be considered murder? These laws were originally intended to prosecute offenders (typically men who had no desire to become fathers) who would attempt to terminate pregnancies by assaulting women, but it’s now being used against women themselves. The religious right is working diligently to make all abortion illegal, but in the meantime, overzealous religious prosecutors (for these people are always motivated by their ridiculous religious convictions) with a distaste for abortion are using feticide laws to punish women who wish to terminate their pregnancies or have serious reservations about78jm being pregnant. This whole thing feels a lot like 1984, and any American even slightly interested in their personal freedom should be concerned.

(Update: Luckily the state did not pursue legal action)