Iowa Woman Jailed for Thinking about an Abortion

[kpete]

Pregnant Iowa Woman Arrested for Falling Down
by Roxann MtJoy · February 12, 2010

.........

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.
http://news.change.org/stories/pregnant-iowa-woman-arrested-for-falling-down

.............

Ms. Taylor isn't alone:
read the whole thing:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/14/956120/-Iowa-Woman-Jailed-for-Thinking-about-an-Abortion

[raccoon]

1. I thought, this HAS to be the Onion....then it wasn't. nt

[roguevalley]

26. ah, another winner from the 'heart land'

[Deep13]

2. Are you fucking serious?

I thought this was an Onion story! Holy shit!

[xchrom]

3. ...

:mad:

[Tippy]

4. K&R...More of our rights as citizens of the US disappear every day....

[Maru Kitteh]

28. Especially the ones with a uterus.

[cali]

5. Doesn't anyone remember this story? It was posted when it happened over a year ago

yes, it's outrageous but it's not current news. Just want to make sure folks know that.

[niyad]

7. doesn't matter. more of this crap is going to be happening every day as our reproductive rights

are under increasing attack.

just think, this happened BEFORE the reichwing fundie repukes gained so much power. look at what they are doing now, every single day.

[cali]

10. of course it matters. when is an important component to any news story

[kpete]

21. i included the date in the caption

because you are right,
it is an important component
yet still relevant
don't you think cali?

peace, kpete

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. This story is over a year old.

Does anyone know what has happened since?

[Bluzmann57]

8. Nowhere in that story does it say where in Iowa

We have 99 counties and it doesn't say anywhere in the article where in Iowa this happened. Inquiring minds want to know. SOLIDARITY!

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. Des Moines County. She was released after two days and charges dropped.

The law is applicable in the third trimester and she was only in her second trimester. The whole thing was a cock up.

[niyad]

13. I hoped she sues their interfering little asses.

[Bluzmann57]

15. Ok. Thanks.

It was just a screwed up situation. And like a commenter said, "Why would anyone deliberately throw themselves down stairs and risk breaking their neck?" And another commenter pointed out that confidentiality laws may have been broken. If so, I hope the doctor and/or nurse are prosecuted.
SOLIDARITY!

[Frustratedlady]

18. Really? I'm going to check this out. I hadn't heard of it.

I live in DM Co.

[somone]

17. Burlington, Iowa

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-6255683-504083.html

[Frustratedlady]

19. Hmmm. I never heard of this. Scary. n/t

[Bluzmann57]

25. Burlington isn't all that far from here.

Hope those idiotic mfers don't come upriver towards us. SOLIDARITY.
On edit- Damn I have to learn to type better.

[CrispyQ]

9. Unfuckingbelievable.

They won't be happy until once again, we are the property of men. :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[niyad]

12. I used to worry about "the handmaid's tale" becoming a reality through the not-so-supreme court.

now I see it approaching from the state houses and congress, each and every day.

[peace frog]

22. In their minds, we ARE the property of men

who also have the mistaken notion we are free to pursue our own course in life. Silly us.

[Buzz Clik]

14. The knuckledraggers line up to tell us that they hate government interference in their lives.

And now this. The implication is that the woman threw herself down a flight of stairs to induce an abortion?

Insane.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. I hope she sues the crap out of that hospital and the staff

who violated their obligation of patient confidentiality.

[ensho]

20. that nurse and doctor should be the ones in jail

creeps

[Chris_Texas]

23. When the rights of the individual are secondary to ANYTHING else...

This is what you can expect, or worse.

Once you accept the moral premise that the rights of EVERY individual to their own life, and all that makes that life possible and worth living, are secondary to the "needs" of society, or will of God, or the "good" of the children, or anything else, these things become inevitable. When you have abandoned any pretense of objective moraility anything goes. God can command anything, society demand anything, and who are you -- a single individual -- to object?

If God wills it women become property and baby making machines. If God wills it minorities become slaves. If God wills it, anything less than grovelling slavery and stinking misery go from being encouraged (as these conditions are today) to mandated, with even a secret thought of objection punishable by the most gruesome tortures and death. If society needs your home, your car, your cash, your life, so be it -- who are YOU to object?

Rights, by definition, are not subject to whim and are irrevocable without cause. Either EVERY person has the absolute right to their own life or no one has ANY. This is true, even if in the later case, some temporary transient benefits might be given. Such dispensations are always assumed to be temporary, a gift from God or society. Let me conclude with this:

What is the moral difference between forcing someone to sacrifice years of their life to war, risking horrific injury or death; and forcing a woman to spend seven or eight or nine months confined during pregnancy? If we accept either of the above, why not the other, and why not go further? Understand this: there is NO moral difference between the society which murders people in human sacrifies to imaginary gods, and the society which claims the right to tell you what books you can read or pictures you can see. Both are founded upon the same foundation -- this is not some slippery slope for there is no slope at all, it is a killing field and you stand where directed.

[mstinamotorcity]

24. Got to love

those womb police!!!

[femrap]

27. The 'Hand Maid's Tale'

is here. Young women...get organized. The fascists are coming after you.