"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
A Stillborn Child, A Charge of Murder and the Disputed Case Law on ‘Fetal Harm’
“Rennie Gibbs, a 16 year old in Mississippi when she gave birth to a stillborn child, is facing life in prison for taking cocaine during her pregnancy. Hers is among a burgeoning number of cases in which women are prosecuted for allegedly endangering their unborn children.”
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The state--embodied in the zealous prosecutor--places the interests of the unborn over pregnant women. This is misogynist in the extreme, reducing women to enslaved baby factories for the duration of their gestation.
In the absence of a marriage or similar reproductive rights contract, I believe the only person with standing to represent the interests of an unborn child is its mother. If the mother does harm to her baby, only those with a pre-existing agreement with her have any potential interests to be recovered--via civil process, not criminal.
In the example detailed in the article, the overreach is made worse, as it is clear that the prosecutor was chasing down any reason, no matter how implausible, just to color a misfortune with a faint hue of malice. This is someone apparently looking to build a political career based upon the support of people who oppose abortion, forgetting that the people thrown into prisons are just as much people, if not more so, than the babies that were never born healthy.
"The state... reduc[es] women to enslaved baby factories" - well said, Log. Mea culpa, but I've never seen it expressed so clearly. Not only do anti-abortion laws force pregnancy, these intrusive "child care" edicts compel women into slavery.
This particular case might be defended on the grounds that the still birth did not result from cocaine use. But one day there will be another, in which a still birth was so caused. If the mother wants to give birth, snorting coke would be highly irresponsible of her; but if she doesn't much care, she should, if anything, be helped and encouraged to abort anyway. Unwanted children are an even greater tragedy than infant mortality.