Ice Dancing

*waves small Canadian flag* I was rooting like gangbusters for Davis and White; they weren't just the home team, I liked that they did something unique but also educated and respectful for their folk dance, and I figured nobody could beat that "flip over his head and stand on his leg" lift.

And then Virtue and Moir knocked it right out of the park. That was textbook perfection. Well earned, that gold!

Random Shakespearean Poll

They've announced this year's Shakespearean Mock Trial, once again to be presided over by a kickline of the nation's highest judges, led by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Potted plot: The Globe War Crimes Tribunal called Henry V to trial for his treatment of prisoners in the play under his name, with the Archbishop of Chaterbury as a co-defendant. After their acquital, the French Civil Liberties Union filed a civil suit on behalf of the slaughtered French POWs, which also resulted in an acquital which was upheld in appeals. Now the Supreme Court of the Amalgamated Kingdom of England and France is deciding if the civil trial judge’s conclusions of law are supported by his findings of fact. (Full writeup in a pdf here).

Topical, but this isn't as interesting to me as last year's case, and I couldn't buy tickets until payday anyway, so until then, throw your $.02 in here; if I go, I'll be posting about it. (As usual, the management reserves the right to completely ignore poll results.)

[Poll #1529596]

Abortion, race, and the criminalization of miscarriage

I've been staying away from the whole knot of issues regarding the infamous Georgia billboards because I couldn't even figure out where to start - the idea that abortion=racial genocide (a point of view espoused by Eeyore, our most vehement protester) or the utter racefail of the billboard's caption. (Y'all don't want to click that link, I'm telling you. It will do your blood pressure no good at all.) There's a lot of fuss and kerfluffle about the legislation Georgia Right to Life is trying to ramrod through, but I discovered on research that attempts to ban abortion due to the race or sex of the fetus have been dying in various state legislatures for the last three years. It doesn't take long for someone to ask "so, if a woman is raped by someone not her race, she can't abort a pregnancy due to the race of the fetus?" and then the whole thing collapses in shuffles of embarrassment and "I didn't mean THAT even though that's how I voted."

Utah is already claiming that they didn't mean THAT with House Bill 12 (pdf warning) in which "a person commits criminal homicide if the person* intentionally, knowingly, recklessly with criminal negligence or acting in a mental state otherwise specified in the statue defining the offense, causes the death of another human being including an unborn child at any state in its development." The next clause goes on to state that abortion itself is not prohibited.

That leaves miscarriage.

Yes, girls, if you miscarry in Utah and someone thinks you were recklessly causing it, your miscarriage is exactly the same as "aggravated murder, murder, manslaughter, child abuse homicide, homicide by assault, negligent homicide or automobile homicide."** And it is punishable in the same manner as criminal homicide.

Oh, and ONLY the woman is to be punished. At no point does the bill address any actions other than the woman's. Go back to a guy who hits you and you lose the baby? Your fault, not his. Fall and lose the baby? Better be able to prove in court you weren't tumbling downstairs intentionally. (Think I'm kidding? Happened in Iowa.)

Utah legislators are crossing their hearts and swearing that they only mean illegal abortion and not miscarriage, despite the fact that they've thrown the burden of proof onto women, who could end up arguing, in court, that they really "just" miscarried and weren't being intentionally reckless.

On the other hand, there are a couple of outs... the bill specifically decriminalizes the death of a fetus if the woman acts against medical advice.

Just as long as she isn't reckless about it.



*(What I completely love is that this anti-miscarriage bill originally said he here.)

**Utah's never heard the phrase "vehicular homicide"?