ALERT: Unauthorized Reproduction bill

[IndianaGreen]

We just got a heads up about an upcoming article in NUVO by the author of the article.

Please note that the article is in draft form, it hasn't been published, and that the author herself raised alarm bells by alerting Indiana GLBT activists (that's how bad this draft bill is).

A draft of the legislation which, among other things, bars unmarried
people from having children by articifial means is here:

http://www.in.gov/legislative/interim/committee/prelim/HFCO04.pdf

Here's a draft of the story that is running this week. It will be my cover story in two weeks also. Feel free to pass this info along to every one you know. This has to be stopped!!!

Keep fighting the good fight!

Laura

The Crime of "Unauthorized Reproduction"
New law will require marriage as a legal condition of motherhood

By Laura McPhee

Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make
marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana,
including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do
become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every
woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother throu gh assisted
reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation,
and egg donation, must first file for a "petition for parentage" in
their local county probate court.

Only women who are married will be considered for the "gestational
certificate" that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the
pregnancy. Further, the "gestational certificate" will only be given
to married couples that successfully complete the same screening
process currently required by law of adoptive parents.

As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent "who
knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction
procedure" without court approval, "commits unauthorized
reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor." The criminal charges will be
the same for physicians who commit "unauthorized practice of
artificial reproduction."

More at the Indiana Forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=151x3281#3287

[FourStarDemocrat]

1. nauseating. n/t

[JDPriestly]

2. How horrible.

What bigotry. I know a woman who is supremely well qualified to be a mother. She is definitely not a lesbian, but she hasn't found a man yet, in spite of looking very diligently. She has told me that if she does not find a husband by a certain age, she will either adopt or have a child through in vitro. I am 100% behind her. She is brilliant and the most loving, kind person I know. She would make a marvelous mother with or without a man. What kinds of heartless, cruel people think these things up? What business is it of theirs? This is just plain wrong. This is truly indecent. It makes my blood boil. Besides, what is to prevent a woman from Indiana coming out to California to be inseminated? It's not only the meanest thing for a long time, it is also stupid and will never be effective.

[Richard D]

4. AI is already expensive enough . . .

. . . and is probably barely in the reach of most people. Adding in a few flights to and from California plus lodging and ground transportation really ups the price.

On a side note, AI is available in places like India and Thailand for a couple grand, about 13K less than in a place like Los Angeles. Makes it well worth it to make the trip. With airfare and housing it's still a lot cheaper than anywhere in the US. Good docs to, usually trained at major medical schools in the US.

The L.A. Times did an article on this last week.

[LuckyTheDog]

61. This is another reason why Roe v. Wade is important

Roe is based on the idea that the Constitution does not give government the power to poke around in our bedrooms or our doctors' offices.

The only exception, under Roe, would be for the protection of a fetus that is viable outside the womb. That sane and sensible. But a sane and sensible world isn't on the agenda of those who are preparing for the Rapture. Constitutional rights mean little, after all, if one believes we're in the "end times" anyway.
:banghead:

[DawnneOBTS]

3. What happens if they go to another state to have it done?

Will they be arrested when they return? Or will the freepers take the child away at birth? Or force an abortion, maybe...whatever they feel like, it seems.

[Richard D]

6. Well,

A person could easily say that they got pregnant via sexual intercourse. I don't think that there is a way to medically prove AI unless the doctor records are examined or a person confesses.

[IndianaGreen]

7. I don't know, but "lifestyle" and "church activities" are a criteria

(10) A description of the family lifestyle of the intended parents,
include a description of individual participation in faith-based or
church activities, hobbies, and other interests.

Page 9

http://www.in.gov/legislative/interim/committee/prelim/HFCO04.pdf

[AlienGirl]

5. Here they go, folks...

This is the kind of crap that the radical right-wing is seeking, with (I believe) the ultimate goal of deciding who gets to reproduce/keep their children...a sort of ideological eugenics that I think has always been the other side of their anti-choice agenda.

Compulsory pregnancy for the ones they want to reproduce; legal penalties if you reproduce without permission.

Tucker

[IndianaGreen]

9. This bill is a nightmare that impacts the hetero community as well

although the primary intend of the bill is to prevent lesbians from becoming mothers, it also targets hetero unmarried women.

[AlienGirl]

10. It sets a dangerous precedent IMO

This sets the legal precedent for State control over who can reproduce, and that ought to scare everybody.

Tucker

[mongo]

43. And now with the Roberts Court

who knows how much of this shit will be upheld.

Once the Dems regain control of this country, it will be time to expand the supreme court by a few more judges.

[wildflower]

8. I'm just waiting for the law that requires motherhood as

a condition of marriage.

Or for that matter, a law that requires motherhood as a condition of being a fertile woman.

(From above):The Crime of "Unauthorized Reproduction"
New law will require marriage as a legal condition of motherhood

We'll have the additional crimes of "unauthorized marriage" and "unauthorized womanhood."

"Blessed be the fruit."

wildflower

[Walt Starr]

11. Ahhh, well on the way to here

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=CX0fjPICXR&isbn=038549081X&itm=1

[IndianaGreen]

12. Republic of Gilead?

This nightmarish work of fiction should be put in the non-fiction list.

[Walt Starr]

13. Handmaid's Tale n/t

[earth mom]

45. I was thinking the exact same thing...haven't read the book in years,

but it sent chills down my back as does this.

There are some sick f*ckers in this country that if they have their way will control all of us 24/7! Unbelievable and disgusting beyond words! :puke:

[Mandate My Ass]

14. Ho-ly shit

:wow:

[Pepperbelly]

15. Could this actually be ... er ... legal?

I mean really ... it's a simple, non-harmful procedure.

What if they went into another state to do the deed? Would they still try to prosecute?

What shit stains.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Looks like the only sex act that "counts" under the law is...

one where a man's penis is inserted into a woman's vagina in order to deposit the seed. (thanks to G2geek for that observation)

[Pepperbelly]

18. sounds like something out of a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

Wasn't he from Indiana, too?

[IndianaGreen]

22. Yep, Kurt was from Indiana

as was David Letterman, Jim Jones, John Dillinger, Eugene V. Debs.

We have all kinds of people here. The good, the bad, and the very bad!

[hunter]

44. Well, they wanted to call it "seed," but they wrote this instead:

"Sexual intercourse", for purposes of IC 31-20, means an act that includes any penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ.

Just in case you didn't know... :eyes:

But assuming some god-fearing law-abiding married couple of a man and a woman (probably white) knows how to reproduce naturally (which is not always the case, thus the explanation above) and they haven't been able to do that, well then, almost anything goes. This couple will be welcomed at the fertility clinic while homosexuals and questionable single people must be excluded.

In summary this law states that all pregnancies must be the consequence of a government sanctioned male orgasm, preferably a "penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ."

Before intended parents may enter into a gestational agreement and before conception occurs, the intended parents shall obtain an assessment from a licensed child placing agency in the intended parents' state of residence.

The assessment must follow the normal practice for assessments in a
domestic infant adoption procedure and must include the following information:

• (1) The intended parents' motivation for entering into a gestational agreement.
  
• (2) The fertility history of the intended parents, including the
  pregnancy history and response to pregnancy losses of the woman.
  
• (3) An acknowledgment by the intended parents that the child may
  not be genetically related to at least one (1) of the intended parents
  depending on the type of medical procedure used.
  
• (4) A list of the intended parents' family and friend support system.
  
• (5) A plan for sharing any known genetic information with the child.
  
• (6) Personal information about each intended parent, including the
  following:
  
  
  
  • (A) Family of origin.
    
  • (B) Values.
    
  • (C) Relationships.
    
  • (D) Education.
    
  • (E) Employment and income.
    
  • (F) Hobbies and talents.
    
  • (G) Physical description, including the general health of the individual.
    
  • (H) Birth verification.
    
  • (I) Personality description, including the strengths and weaknesses of each intended parent.
    
  
  
• (7) Description of any children residing in the intended parents' home.
  

The authors of this proposed legislation are some very mad hatters. I can't imagine God will destroy Indiana if a few homosexuals and unmarried women decide to get pregnant without "any penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ." but apparantly some good people of Indiana fear their state will be overrun by the demon spawn of Lesbian biker chicks if this proposed legislation doesn't become law by July 1, 2006.

[FrankX]

17. Unauthorized reproduction? Sounds crazy

[berni_mccoy]

19. Absolutely, 100% in VIOLATION of the U.S. Constitution!

MOTHER FUCKING FASCISTS!

[mike_c]

20. you just cannot make this shit up....

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. :wtf:

[IndianaGreen]

21. I fear this proposed legislation is a model for other states

The rightwing never does anything by chance!

[mike_c]

24. this is right out of the handmaid's tale, and remember how the RW...

...ragged on china for DARING to regulate reproductive "rights?" I'm utterly speechless. This is naked demagoguery and tyranical bigotry.

[Cats Against Frist]

23. When will people fucking learn?

The right-wing is not about liberty any more than Stalin was. Their "primacy of the family" stuff is utter bullshit -- their economic policies, their social prejudices, their wars -- all stand in the way of healthy families, and parents' rights.

I cannot stand these people. :grr:

[Iris]

50. They don't care. They only want someone to make sense of the world

for them because they are basically a bunch of frightened nit wits. If something makes them uncomfortable, they want it banned or controlled.

[jane_pippin]

25. A forced marriage bill? To prevent gay families? What in fuck's name?

Is that really what I just read? And it's real?

This is pure insanity! What about a gay family, couple, or person is so utterly terrifying to these people? How insecure can you be?!

So two men or two women who want a marriage and kids can't do it, but an unmarried couple who wants a baby must marry or else having a baby is criminal?! Sorry to be crude, but isn't it amazing that they managed to craft a law that involves no screwing yet manages to screw just about everyone?

And religious requirements?! Un-real.

Please tell me this isn't real.

[hunter]

26. The people who wrote this are insane.

Norman Bates wearing their dead mamma's dress and masturbating insane.

[The Jacobin]

27. Forced abortion?

Is any child conceived illegally subject to a forced abortion? ;)

[IndianaGreen]

28. They could take the child away and put it for adoption

since the people that can affort artificial insemination are mostly white and are very careful to select the biological father, a child conceived that way would be very valuable to those that profit from adoption. The unmarried mother, and/or the gay couple, would be stripped of their parental rights while a corporation makes money selling their kid to the highest bidder.

[AlienGirl]

29. Eventually they could apply it to all "unauthorized" pregnancies

They could require the children of people not authorized to reproduce to be given for adoption by "approved" (read: Republican) parents.

Tucker

[IndianaGreen]

30. Unless the fetus is Black in which case abortion is okay

to cut down on the crime rate!

Bill Bennett's context to his racist comments are beginning to make sense now.

:scared:

[firefox]

31. Reproduction is an unalienable right

It would be struck down by the courts even if the idiots in Indiana pass it. What are they going to do to an illegal pregnancy - require an abortion?

[jmowreader]

32. I expect "walking assisted reproduction agencies"

This is one of the creepier bills I've seen...in this application to be an intended parent, you must list your hobbies and values. As in I'm really going to put down that my hobbies include smoking weed, making amateur porn and slaughtering cattle in my back yard. Oh, and they want to know all of your friends, too.

This bill specifically exempts pregnancies initiated by sexual intercourse, so I expect to see "walking assisted reproduction agencies" popping up all across Indiana. This will all be underground, of course, because if you subvert the laws of that Republic of Gilead that they're trying to set up in Indiana I'm pretty sure they take you out back and shoot you. Basically, you'll get a list of potential fathers for your child. You choose one, make friends with him and hang out for a couple of weeks together. After a short "courtship," you start having sex with him and you keep going back until you're pregnant. A couple weeks after you get pregnant, your new friend's dishwasher quits working or his tire goes flat, so you give him $250 so he can get it fixed. You stay with him a few weeks after you get pregnant, then you get pissed off at him, have a huge argument in public and he storms out of your life, never to be seen again.

It's a perfect plan. It's completely legal to make new friends. It's completely legal to have casual sex with your friends. And it's completely legal to give friends money to help them through hard times. It's perfectly fine to break up with your new friends because they piss you off. It's even legal for your friends to get you pregnant.

There is a more direct way to deal with the problem--give a guy $250 to get him to sleep with you. But that's prostitution and it's not legal.

You can still pick up single guys in bars for free, but you never know who these guys are. The walking assisted reproductive agencies will be disease free and of good stock, so no worries about weird-ass inherited diseases.

[Jo March]

33. So, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??

Sorry to shout but we need to be getting the word out on this - to NOW, NARAL, PDA, PFLAG - other groups like that.

Come on, folks! This is slimy to the core and we can talk about it or start working on it.

I'll work on getting this to NOW, as I am a member. :)

Who's going to help with the rest of the list??

[Jo March]

34. I've alerted the following IN NOW chapters

Fort Wayne Area NOW IN0035
Greater Lafayette NOW IN0075
Hanover College NOW IN0120
Indianapolis NOW IN0130
Muncie/Delaware County NOW IN0170

I'm going to send it to the national office as well.

I'll be happy to continue sending this out to whomever. We won't get this killed unless we actually DO something about it. We have way more numbers than they do.

It's time to stop these folks!

[Coexist]

35. kicking -

[IndianaGreen]

53. I have alerted everyone I know

All the activists of every stripe, and post it in other discussion boards. The rightiwing does its work in the shadows and we need to bring this crap to the light of day.

[Jo March]

55. Amen! I'll help in any way that I can

Roaches always scurry when the lights get turned on!

[Kber]

36. Interesting translation from the original German.

:sarcasm:

[Jo March]

37. LOL!

:spray:

[Coexist]

49. too funny!

[Jo March]

38. Here is the website for IN NOW

http://indiananow.home.comcast.net/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html?sfgdata=4

I will start sending this to other organizations as well.

[truebrit71]

39. Are you fucking kidding me???

Jeebus Christ on a bike!!!! What fucking century is this??

These idiots need to be thrown from office and pelted with rotten fruit...

[apnu]

41. Its Indianna...

IN has little to nothing for it as a state. This is the place that kept the KKK alive when it was sputting out in the 1920s. Helped give it a rebirth in the 1940s so it could be alive and well in the south of the 1960s.

I have to drive through the state at least twice a year and it gives me the willies. Its two hours of solid Jesus on the radio stuff out there. IN is also, IMO, the Republican model for America. Small towns that are easy to control and torque when the necessary hate topic of the week comes up.

I also expect something like this to happen in Nebraska and Okalahoma.

[Iris]

40. This is disgusting.

But, I hope it sees the light of day b/c I think the average person would be horrified to know what the wingnuts they vote for are really all about.

[crispini]

42. This is INSANE!

WTF! Please continue to keep us posted on this. I'll check the Indiana forum too. This is nuts.

[hunter]

47. This is what happens when Republicans eat lead and mercury.

Democrats wander around aimlessly and act "nice."

[Az]

46. Astounding. The gaul...

Good freeking grief.

[Skidmore]

48. We have a city in Iowa which has a law banning BC on its books.

And some local wanted it to be reinforced.

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/NEWS01/510040307/1079

Tuesday, October 4, 2005


City ordinance bans birth control

Law has been on books since 1970s



By The Associated Press


DECORAH -- A city ordinance banning the sale of birth control has caught many city officials off guard.

The ordinance has been on the books since the 1970s, but most officials didn't know about it until a few weeks ago when a man e-mailed Decorah police demanding it be enforced.

"I ask you to enforce the law by seizing these illegal goods and arresting the offenders," wrote Bob Ulrich, who lives in rural Winneshiek County near Decorah. He said two local drugstores selling birth control products and the Luther College Health Service's distribution of condoms are both in violation of the law.

"I looked it up and frankly, to my surprise, it was there," Decorah City Administrator Jerry Freund said.

[noonwitch]

51. How much of a chance does this have of passing?

It sounds like something that the court of appeals would strike down before it could be enforced. It reads like they would like to just out and out ban gay people from having custody of any children, but know if they word it that way it will get struck down. Too bad for them that they border on at least one state that will allow gays to adopt (MI), as long as a single adult adopts the child. Gay couples can't adopt because they aren't legally married, but one of the parties can legally adopt.

[JaneQPublic]

52. Also known as the "Fertilization Under Consent of the King" Law...

...but most people use the acronym.

[noiretextatique]

54. how will they deal with the lawbreakers? forced abortion, perhaps?

it will be a class B misdemeanor, but what about the "unborn" conceived via "unauthorized reproduction?"
someone need to give these folks a course on basic biology. a marriage certificate is not a requirement for preganancy :eyes:

[AlienGirl]

63. Jail the parent(s) and give the baby to an "approved" couple. nt

[donheld]

56. What country is America these days

It's not the same country i grew up in. Sounds more like the old USSR without the communism.

[Jo March]

57. Sent this to the National Center for Lesbian Rights

Still looking for help with this, folks.

Doesn't anyone want to help?!?

[bee]

60. The ACLU now has a campaign to protect reproductive freedom

http://www.takeissuetakecharge.org/

Ive notified them of this. This shit has got to stop. :nuke:

[Jo March]

66. Thank you, bee!!

I had forgotten all about the ACLU yesterday as I was on my emailing kick!

Go, ACLU!! :applause:

[leftchick]

58. kick

this is so horrible. :(

[readmoreoften]

59. They like me! They really really like me!

Bin Laden be damned--I'm a baseball cap wearin', whale-watchin, softball-lovin, vegetarian, social workin' lesbian mom.

It feels warm and cozy to be Indiana's new public enemy #1.

[pinto]

62. kick

[IndianaGreen]

64. Kicked!

It has now made MSM and DU's LBN

The local ABC station did a story tonight:

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/5055349/detail.html

[lildreamer316]

65. You. must. be.joking.

Where am I?
What century is this?
This had better be a nightmare...or a Handmaid's Tale.
What the fuck.