South Dakota Yankton Press Runs Asetoyer/Paltrow letter

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Letter: Arresting Consequences?

By: Charon Asetoyer and Lynn M. Paltrow

The new abortion law's supporters have created the impression that only the
people providing the abortions will be punished, not the women having them.
It is clear, however, that women will be punished, too.
Before 1973, when abortion was illegal in most states, even if the statute
did not specifically apply to the woman herself, pregnant women could still
be arrested under separate laws permitting the prosecution of those who aid
and abet a crime. Moreover, many women, while not arrested, were publicly
shamed and subjected to police investigations that were in and of themselves
a form of punishment.

Language in the new law states "nothing in this Act may be construed to
subject the pregnant mother upon whom any abortion is performed or attempted
to any criminal conviction and penalty." The truth is that "this" act need
not authorize arrests of pregnant women for such arrests to take place.

South Dakota has adopted numerous laws asserting the legal personhood of the
unborn. If the unborn are legal persons, then a pregnant woman who has an
abortion can be prosecuted as a murderer under already existing homicide
laws.

Far-fetched? Not at all. In South Carolina, Regina McKnight is serving 12
years in jail for homicide by child abuse for unintentionally causing the
stillbirth she suffered by using a drug during pregnancy. In Utah, a woman
was charged with murder based on the claim that she unintentionally caused a
stillbirth by refusing to have a c-section earlier in her pregnancy. Even
though South Carolina is the only state to uphold such arrests, pregnant
women in states across the country, including South Dakota, have already
been arrested as child abusers or murderers -- without any new legislation
authorizing such arrests.

If women who unintentionally risk harm to the fetus are being arrested, we
must assume that the women of South Dakota, who have intentional abortions
will be arrested, too.