Evidently the reasonable Cosgrove email about miscarriage reporting was a sham.

[China_cat]

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?051+ful+HB1677 is the link to follow the changing in wording of this bill.

So far the ONLY CHANGES have been to substitute numerals for written out numbers and change the word 'mother' to woman. Oh, and changing the word 'this' before Commonwealth to 'the'.

But NOT ONE WORD of the original proposal to require women to report a 'fetal death' within 12 hours has been changed. NOT ONE WORD. As it remains, fetal death still covers a 3 week zygote as well as a 9 month stillbirth.

In spite of what Cosgrove said in his form email.

[Divernan]

1. Legally speaking, this piece of legislation is totally bogus!

UNLESS the state of Virginia has legally defined "life" as beginning at three weeks after conception, which I will bet the farm they haven't, this legislation is crap! Why? Because a being has to be ALIVE BEFORE IT CAN DIE! So the legislation is void ab initio because it has a fatal internal contradiction, i.e., it is based on the "death" of a fetus. To put it as simply as possible for lurkers, death is the cessation of life. If there is no life, there can be no death. If there is no death, there is nothing to report under the language of this proposed legislation. If the VA Legislative leadership is halfway intelligent, they will let this bill expire (as opposed to "die") in whatever committee is is assigned to for consideration.

If the bill is passed as currently written, and becomes law, it would be very easy to challenge it.

[China_cat]

2. VA law defines fetal death

as the expulsion of the product of conception REGARDLESS OF GESTATIONAL AGE.

[RC]

3. Couldn't that also cover a womans

monthly period?
It is a little know fact that sometimes the expelled egg had been fertilized.

[China_cat]

6. Yes, it certainly could.

[leesa]

7. This is true and may be an interesting way to battle this.

If women in the state began to report to the police each month that she had miscarried...who would know unless you didn't have sex...it would mangle the process quite effectively.

[drm604]

8. I think you're correct about that.

I remember learning that in biology 101. As I recall, it's actually pretty common. (Can someone find a cite to confirm this?) So I guess all sexually active women will have to contact the police once a month if they want to avoid the possibility of a fine and prison time. So then the police will have a record of who's been having sex each month. If I had my tinfoil hat on I guess I could claim that that's the real reason for this law. But obviously the problem is simply that the bill is based on ignorance of biology. Of course, in my opinion, the whole anti-choice argument is based largely on ignorance of biology, so that's nothing new.

[Tsiyu]

4. Well, the OBGyn's will be happy

Any woman done with or never desiring children will just have the menstruater ripped out. What the hell. If she has insurance.

Now, when are we going to start examing men's bedsheets for "spilled seed?" Can you imagine the jobs created when we have to run every menstruating female's pads and tampons and every male's linens through the Department of Reproductive Security?

[ChairOne]

5. lol - should coin the word "blockbustered"...

... meaning something like "having a bait and switch pulled on you".

Blockbuster recently did this with their "no more late fees" campaign. It's literally true, but they don't tell you that if you're "late", they just sell u the dvd automatically! lol

"Damn it! Got blockbustered again!"

:)