HB 5882 - Abortion Rights or Injustice?

Have you heard of the HB 5882 act? Well you will now. This is not a topic that has been discussed on the various news stations, unlike the war in Iraq or Britney "losing" her panties. Why is it not being discussed very much? In my opinion it is because it has to do with abortion rights and the radical feminists. So what is the HB 5882 act and how could it affect you? I'm glad you asked. HB 5882, also known as the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act, will make it illegal for anyone (man, woman, husband, life partner, etc) to try to get a woman to have an abortion by "an act, attempted act, or threat to act by a person that is conditioned upon the pregnant female disregarding or refusing the person's demand that she seek an abortion". Basically it says that it would be illegal to force a woman to have an abortion. Sounds like a pretty good idea, right? Wrong.

Even though it looks good on the outside, let's take a closer look at what the Act actually states. The definitions of "coercive" and "threats" are very loosely stated. According to the Act, definitions of the previous wording would include filing for divorce or the "attempt to file for divorce", the "attempt to withdrawal financial support", and changing or "attempting to change an existing housing or cohabitation arrangement with the pregnant female". Even if the person living with the pregnant female only threatens to do any of the aforementioned items, after having 2 or more statements made it would also be a crime. So as an example, let's say a married couple is preparing to have a baby. Something happens and they get in a heated argument. During the argument the husband threatens to leave and then threatens to get a divorce. Even if he actually means what he said, he would be committing a crime according to HB 5882. How is this possibly fair? This Act would give the woman the right to get a man, whether married or not, and basically force him to stay in a relationship and keep his mouth shut, based solely on the fact that she is pregnant. Who is to say that the woman couldn't lie about the situation just to get the other person in trouble? And how will they handle the situation of a woman that had an affair with a married man? What will he have to do?

Here is a little breakdown of the fines and what else can happen. If the woman is threatened but not physically threatened, the person could get a fine of up to $2000. If the woman is pregnant and under 18 and the perpetrator is actually the father and an adult, then he would be fined up to $5000 and imprisoned for not more than one year, or both. So would they make the adult male not only take care of the pregnant teen monetarily, but also live with her? He would have no say so nor anyway around this, unless he would rather pay the fine and possibly go to jail. How would this do any good to the unborn child? How would taking that amount of money away by giving it to the government as a fine and then throwing the father in jail make the child's life any better?

Still, there may be some good behind this Act. However, the lines they are setting are too blurred. This Act is putting all of the power an control into the hands of the pregnant woman. There are some cases where this could be radically unfair to the man, or even for the life partner if the woman is gay. How so? Let's say a woman gets pregnant, but not by her husband. The husband knows for a fact that the baby is not his and wants a divorce since his wife was unfaithful. According to this Act, he would not be allowed to ask for a divorce because of the legal terminology. It states the "putative" father, or the presumed father, which by law in a marriage would automatically be the husband even though he would not be the biological father. Or how about the couples that enters into a marriage or relationship with a mutual agreement of not having any children ever, or not until later? Then the woman ends up pregnant and the other person feels like the agreement was broken and doesn't want to stay in the relationship. Well according to the Act, that person would be SOL so to speak.

This bill, along with 4 others were packaged together and put before the Michigan State House in July. It passed, and HB 5882 passed 67 to 38. Now they are getting ready to pass them through the State Senate. Yes, this is only for the residence of the state of Michigan, but I fear that if it passes other states could begin to incorporate these laws as well. How much more are we going to try to castrate our men? And in all actuality, in this case it will not just be the men that will be targeted. The bills actually state that nobody can be coercive or threatening to a pregnant woman. A majority of people affected would be male, but you also have to take into consideration the growing amount of same sex couples having children. So where will it stop? I think they were on the right track with this bill, but they need to do a lot of fine tuning and leave the radical feminist opinions out of it.