Three plaintiffs testified about the trauma they experienced carrying nonviable pregnancies.

  • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s the thing with exceptions. They’re very hard to legislate.

    Rape exceptions might as well not exist. Laws I’ve heard on this require the rape to be proven in the court of law. Even putting aside the fact that most rape cases are never processed and prosecuted, there’s a very low likelihood that the case will conclude before the pregnancy does, thus rendering the exception useless.

    Exceptions for medical complications are also very hard to legislate because you have to decide when is the woman dying enough to be able to save her life. Is it when we are losing her now? When she’ll die tomorrow? Next week? Dying now means risking that she won’t survive the treatment or if she does, that she’ll lose her fertility in the process. Is that acceptable? The much higher chance of, in your view, losing two lives rather than one? I would argue no. This is exactly what led to these situations: women forced to endure trauma because doctors are terrified of life in jail if someone decides that the woman wasn’t in “enough danger” or “in danger at all”. I don’t see any way around this outcome.

    Third, I’ve only seen one state that allowed an exception for nonviability of a fetus. In all the other states I’ve seen, women have to carry doomed fetuses who will die shortly after birth. I can’t imagine the trauma of that. Isn’t it more merciful to allow those women to abort?

    • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Rape exceptions might as well not exist.

      I think you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater then.

      Laws I’ve heard on this require the rape to be proven in the court of law.

      I’m not too knowledgeable about the language of rape exceptions in many states. My state is pretty liberal, so that’s not something I have in my state. I, along with others, think a good alternative could be that any woman who had a rape kit, or reported a rape (which I believe is the law in some states?). I’d even go 1 step further, I’d say that any woman that claims the baby is a result of rape, is allowed to have an abortion (up to some, fairly liberal point in the pregnancy, say 20 weeks for examples).

      Exceptions for medical complications are also very hard to legislate because you have to decide when is the woman dying enough to be able to save her life.

      I agree, it’s a tough line! if there’s a 1% chance, is that high enough? 2%? 20%?

      A lot of law says ‘reasonable persons’ - I think if a reasonable person would think there would be a high enough threshold of risk to the mothers health, that’s fine. It’s up to a jury of her peers, and court precedence. Many items in our law have these as gauges of what’s ‘reasonable.’

      Third, I’ve only seen one state that allowed an exception for nonviability of a fetus. In all the other states I’ve seen, women have to carry doomed fetuses who will die shortly after birth. I can’t imagine the trauma of that. Isn’t it more merciful to allow those women to abort?

      I don’t know enough about the states laws, that sounds wrong to me, but maybe it’s right. I disagree with that, if the baby is already dead, there’s no reason for a woman to endure the pregnancy further.

      • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I appreciate your reply, but I was talking about his things actually played out. But the idealized version where every exception case is allowed. This is how it’s played out. This article forcing people into traumatic experiences. I was talking about how it’s really hard to legislate for, not the most idealized version. Please, recognize that banning abortion unduly hurts people rather than actually saves people. Exceptions aren’t really exceptions with the real, current requirements to take advantage of them. They are just lip service and a shield to hide behind.