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TN house votes to allow prosecution for harming a fetus
less than 8 weeks old.
Yay Jobs for the uterus police.
The state House of Representatives approved a bill allowing homicide and assault prosecutions for the death of embryos in the earliest stages of development, in a vote tinged by the decades-long fight over abortion.
House lawmakers voted 80-18 for a measure that would extend criminal punishments for killing a fetus to the first eight weeks of pregnancy.
Supporters said the bill would clarify a law passed last year that made it easier to prosecute people for harming fetuses.
Opponents said charges of harming an embryo will be difficult to prove because many pregnancies end naturally at that stage. They suggested the measure really is meant to set up future battles over abortion.
Tennessee law has long allowed prosecutors to bring two charges when a person kills or assaults a pregnant woman. A charge of harming a fetus can be brought only as a second charge to harming the pregnant woman as well.
State law limited prosecutions to harming a ?viable fetus,? defined as somewhere around the 32nd week after conception until last year, when the law was amended to apply to any fetus. But one of that law?s sponsors, Republican Rep. Joshua Evans of Greenbrier, said backers did not realize then that humans are not typically referred to as fetuses until the eighth week of development. Before that stage, they are usually known as embryos.
House Bill 3517 would extend the law specifically to embryos ?at any state of gestation in utero.?
?We?re talking about clarifying. We?re not talking about changing the law,? Evans said.
During a floor debate that lasted about half an hour, Evans noted repeatedly that last year?s bill passed both chambers unanimously. The measure cleared the House 80-0 and the Senate 26-0 on the final day of the legislative session.
Linked to abortion
But opponents said the bill would make major changes to state law.
According to the National Institutes of Health, roughly half of all fertilized eggs die before reaching full term, with the rate highest during the embryonic stage. As a result, it will be difficult for prosecutors to prove that an embryo miscarried because of someone else?s action and not from natural causes, predicted Rep. Jeanne Richardson, D-Memphis.
?It is nature?s way, God?s way, of protecting our species,? she said. ?I think your original bill may have been OK and we voted for that. I think extending that would be iffy.?
Opponents gradually linked the measure to the abortion debate.
Rep. Johnnie Turner, D-Memphis, said the measure would give ?veiled support? to the anti-abortion movement by establishing that embryos can be crime victims. Once that principle had been accepted, embryos could be recognized as persons under other aspects of the law.
?It is not the same bill? as last year?s, she said. ?It passed unanimously last year under different circumstances, different terminology.?
Despite those objections, only 18 lawmakers, all Democrats, voted against the measure. The bill comes up for a vote this morning in the Senate, having been passed out of that chamber?s Judiciary Committee last week.
Re: TN house votes to allow prosecution for harming a fetus
Where is this all headed? To overturning Roe v. Wade? Or just to make abortions near impossible to get legally?
I'm waiting for the bill that would make it illegal for doctors to save women who need treatment after they use a coat hanger on themselves because we've made abortions so hard to get.
And then if she doesn't die, she must be charged for harming the fetus.
I think we know where it is heading and it is scaring the crap out of me.
Above Us Only Sky
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
Bloggy McBloggerson
CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
2011 Bests
5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
2012 Race Report
1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
To do list:
- schedule husband's vasectomy
- schedule my own sterilization
- make sure we move out of TN before the kids hit puberty
I've already checked the first one off the list. I swear. These doofus azz lawmakers are killing me.
MH keeps whining his whining ass about it, and I'm like, "b*tch, please." I've been cut open TWO times to have the most beautiful babies on the planet. You can have your balls snipped.
I was planning on just not being sterilized, but I may be persuaded to be double covered.
Here's another fun TN law coming down the pike.
Aren't there any other problems in TN? Must be Nirvana.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/17541668/no-sex-bill-headed-for-house-floor-vote
'No Sex Bill' headed for House floor vote
Posted: Apr 18, 2012 5:24 PM PDT Updated: Apr 18, 2012 5:24 PM PDTNASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A proposal that would ban the teaching of any type of sexual activity in schools is headed for a House floor vote.
The measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Jim Gotto of Hermitage passed the House Education Committee on a voice vote Wednesday. The Senate approved the companion bill 29-1 earlier this month.
Gotto said he proposed the legislation after complaints against some outside vendors that were teaching sexual education in schools. He said in some cases students were being told that any kind of sexual activity is permissible, as long as it's not sexual intercourse.
Gotto said safe sex can be taught in schools' "family life education" curricula, but it must be abstinence-centered.
If not, he said a parent has the right to sue the vendor under his proposal.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I am the 99%.
Nope. Just making sure you ...
Don't Say Gay
Have Guns in Parking Lots
Don't Talk About Sex
And the all time favorite - legislate the hell out of local issues like the Shelby County school merger
Oh and we have *** Dog Laws.
we've had so many goodies this session
Above Us Only Sky