Criminal Miscarriage: Confessions of a Prenatal Murderess

Commentary | In the eyes of Georgia State Representative Bobby Franklin, I am a murderess. Franklin's bill, HB 1, requires authorities to investigate medically unsupervised miscarriages as murder. If a woman could not prove that "there was no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of" her miscarriage, she could be charged with felony prenatal murder, a crime punishable by death.

I figure most people have never met a murderess, so here I am to tell my story.

Portrait of a murderess

We had been trying to conceive for six months before a home pregnancy test confirmed what I already suspected. I whispered the news to my husband in bed that night, and we told our families a few weeks later. Our son, who'd been begging for a little brother or sister, was delighted and so were we.

The spotting didn't worry me at first. An implantation bleed, I figured, no big deal. The same thing happened with my first pregnancy, and it went away after a few days. Still, it was time for my first prenatal appointment, and my doctor worked me in early.

The ultrasound

The appointment was on July 16, which happened to be my sister's birthday. I craned my neck during the ultrasound, hoping to see the first, tiny flashing of the baby's heartbeat. I reminded myself to ask for printouts to share with the family that weekend.

I knew something was wrong when the technician turned the monitor away from me. She summoned the doctor, and the two of them murmured quickly together. The technician left the room, closing the door quietly behind her. The only heartbeat I could hear was my own, pounding in fear and denial.

"Karen, yes, this is an implantation bleed, but there's a problem." I don't remember the words she used after that. I didn't want to hear them, and the traffic outside seemed strangely loud.

A black hole where my baby should have been

The pregnancy, she explained, was anembryonic, a blighted ovum. The fertilized egg could implant and develop a gestational sac, but it would never, ever produce a baby. Then she turned the monitor around to show me the heart-breakingly empty area, a black hole where my baby should have been.

The doctor said it might take a week, maybe two, but miscarriage was certain. The only question was when. There was a procedure to spare me the agony of waiting, but I declined it.

The pain and bleeding increased bit by bit over the course of a week. A miscarriage hurts less than labor, but it's enough to buckle your knees. Finally, around 11 a.m. on a Thursday, I found myself sobbing on my knees on the bathroom floor. I wasn't bleeding enough to call an ambulance, but I didn't want to stain the linens if I stayed in bed.

When it was over, I cleaned up the bathroom and threw away my clothes. I couldn't imagine wearing them again and thinking, "Oh, this is what I had on when I lost my baby."

Franklin's bill - Frailty, Thy Name Is Woman

Under the terms of Franklin's bill, my home would be considered a crime scene. I can already imagine the investigation. Did I drink, smoke or dye my hair? Did I work too many hours, get too little sleep, drive too fast or expose my baby to too much radiation from my computer monitor? What was I trying to hide when I cleaned up the blood and threw away my clothes?

According to HB 1, authorities don't have to prove that I did any of those things; I have to prove that I didn't. Every aspect of my life would subject to scrutiny. Wine bottles in my wine rack, an ashtray on my back porch, NyQuil in my medicine cabinet, all of these could be used evidence against me. And what if I was too young or too old, overweight, underweight or Rh-negative? Could conceiving at all under conditions with a higher chance of miscarriage constitute human involvement?

I saw Goody Wyman with the devil

Franklin's HB 1 abuses women. It is a discriminatory witch hunt that violates equal protection and the presumption of innocence. The bill subjects women to invasion of privacy, unreasonable search and seizure, and cruel and unusual punishment.

Religion and law - Are we a nation of hypocrites?

In Iran and Afghanistan, women can be stoned to death for adultery. In America, we decry this as misogynist barbarism, and we point to it as an object lesson in the perils of allowing religion to dictate law.

In Georgia, Rep. Franklin is explicit about his desire to return civil government "to its biblically and constitutionally defined role." Franklin's bill uses religion to sentence women to death, not for the sin of adultery, but for the simple, physical accident of miscarriage.

Fortunately for women, Franklin's HB 1 has zero chance of passing. In 2008, a similar bill that did not include miscarriage was voted down 152 - 2. Unfortunately for women, the feticide laws already on the books in 37 states are being increasingly twisted to target pregnant women themselves. Lest you think I exaggerate, consider the case of Christine Taylor, a pregnant Iowa woman who spent two days in jail after her doctor accused her of falling down the stairs on purpose.

If we, as a nation, condemn the abuse of women by Islamic law in other countries while supporting the abuse of women by Christian law at home, then we are a nation of hypocrites.

Sources:

Bobby Franklin, So Much Junk And I Forgot The Duct Tape! Arghhhhhhhh!, The American View

Bobby Franklin, House Bill 1

Brett Michael Dykes, Georgia lawmaker proposes classifying miscarriages as 'prenatal murder', The Lookout on Yahoo! News

Jen Phillips, Ga. Law Could Give Death Penalty for Miscarriages, Mother Jones

Lisa Belkin, Jailing a woman for a miscarriage?, New York Times

Roxann MtJoy, Pregnant Iowa Woman Arrested for Falling Down, www.change.org

Bobby Franklin's Georgia House Bio