If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law.
And yet, the Virginia Republican Party wants to make Obenshain into the state’s top prosecutor. This weekend, Virginia Republicans selected Obenshain as their nominee to replace tea party stalwart Ken Cuccinelli (R) as the state’s attorney general.
Under Obenshain’s bill, which was introduced in 2009:
When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Under Virginia law, a Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of “confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500,” so Obenshain’s bill could lead to a woman who decides to take a day to grieve the loss of a pregnancy she’d hoped to carry to term spending a year of her life in jail for that decision.
Isn't Virginia also the home of Governor Transvaginal Ultrasound?
What the hell Virginia?
This whole idea of rights of a fetus superseding the rights of all others is completely out of control!
How will they know if it isn't reported?
ReplyDeleteThere are going to be alot of babies thrown in the trash then.
Fucking asshole. Can we get a clue of how many times he "tosses off" and charge him? Every sperm is sacred...No?
Hell, i didn't even KNOW or SUSPECT i was pregnant until I was 12 weeks along :/
DeleteThe whole deal is we are electing... (or someone is) congressman, AG,Senators or just "Pols" as Sarah calls them who are completely ignorant in science, women's health! I'll bet this clown was home skooled or a jesus private skool. He so dumb.
Delete(REAL home schoolers don't jump my ass) I know there are SOME responsible people, that home school. In the South for the most as in Alaska home school is no school as Levi says. Or at least nothing but bible verses all day.
Their understanding of the details of women's reproduction is literally nil. Most miscarriages occur before a woman is 100% sure that she is pregnant - ignorant little sh-ts are what they are - and to think the US - land of the free - and what used to be - the educated - breed such men.
ReplyDeleteIt is to be hoped more and more women stay single and happy & refuse to reproduce with the stupid that seems to be 90% of men in the republican party.
I just can't handle these @ssholes anymore.
ReplyDeleteYou've been a man of infinite patience.....
DeleteWhat happened to Privacy? This can't be Constitutional.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should create a law that any man spilling his seed should report it immediately, or else face a year in jail.
As you say, Gryphen, "what the Hell, Virginia?!"
It is unbelievable!!!
What's that pong emanating from the Southwest? Smells like sour camel toe.
ReplyDeletedo we now call Virginia law enforcement the tampon police? - and Obenshain's staff the Kotex Gestapo?
ReplyDeleteIf they did enact this law, that would be the way to stop them. Every woman should be encouraged to call the police on a monthly (mentrually-speaking) basis and report that she "may" have miscarried, then drop off her used sanitary items at Obenshain's office for inspection. watch how long THAT lasts.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!
DeleteThat was good; soiled sanitary products in baggies with names and dates on them. Let that sucker chart the cycles of every fertile woman. I think he would lose interest quickly.
DeleteI am loving this idea! Women unite! Let’s feel the power of our menstrual blood! ;) Imagine how crazy-making this would be for police in the South! I say YES!
DeleteI love the way you think! I wish I could contribute to the cause, but alas those days are behind me. I wonder, does this apply to women just passing through or vacationing in VA? It might be worth the trip!
DeleteThe only snag I see in this idea is that I think it's actually against the law to mail blood/blood products via USPS or via private carries like UPS or Fedex? Perhaps a job for
DeleteAnonymous? set up collection points for used "feminine requisites" and then hand deliver them to the esteemed gentleman from VA?
need a "like" button
DeleteHey Mary, if these assfucks write illegal laws, that's for them to sort out. After all we're just poor widdle, lady-brained females. /snark/
Deleteand thanks, all (Original Poster).
That’s another man who spends too much time thinking about strange stuff, and it would be laughable, except that he could seriously damage a woman and her family.
ReplyDeleteSigh...once again our beautiful commonwealth is the laughing stock of the internets and cable news. This is just the tip of the iceberg , my friends , when it comes to this years GOP ticket, that was nominated via a closed convention of the most diehard GOP activists in VA. Obenshain is a nutjob for sure, but pales in comparison to Bishop EW Jackson , the GOP nominee for LT. Gov who compares Planned Parenthood to the KKK, says homosexuality is perverse, and says Obama has Muslim sensibilities because he sat in Rev Wrights CHRISTIAN church for twenty years..and BTW, he's black. Check out his you tube channel for more awesomeness , this dude hates everyone, and froths at the mouth every time, he needs to be checked for rabies,
ReplyDeleteSo the GOP is running the Cuccinelli , Jackson, Obenshain ticket, the most anti woman, anti gay, anti science extremists in state history.
Virginia Voter
I will never understand how even one women would vote for any of these ass clowns.
DeleteBut..but..Virginia is for lovers...isn't it?
DeleteI live in Virginia and can confirm there are many idiot right wingers here.
ReplyDeleteI tell my neighbors that voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 that they should have their voting rights taken away.
Anyone that voted Sarah, a heart beat away from nuclear button, does not have enough intelligence to vote any more.
So afraid of a gun registry, this is their reason for no background checks. They sure don't care id a registry for women wh have a miscarriage, or any other reason for a pregnancy to terrimate. They can't even get the crimmials, but they are going to make all women who don't report a miscarriage crimmials, I guess reliquenishing their other children and making them slaves of corporations, since their won't be any moms left to take care of them. These fools must be stopped!put women in jail for not reporting a miscarriage. Embarament of being asked all these questions,that is no one business beside you dr, like where did it happen lets see all the blood or whatever. Just to hummilate women. What's so crazy how many children have been killed by their parents or others by guns, and they don't even punisher them, it was an accident. but then it was men who killedkis, while cleaning, getting in a car or at a gun range, or let the kid get ahold of their gun, that is ok.
ReplyDelete5:05, I understand completely your frustration with this kind of crap. I feel it, too.
DeleteBut could you PLEASE proofread your comment before posting it? Trying to read through your comment was almost painful.
sorry i have a bad habbit of trying to read being upset and no glasses on, it's a blurr
DeleteOh Boy! Do I know about the no glasses bit!!!!!!!
DeleteLet me also clarify, that Obenshains bill never became law, and is probably not constitutional anyway, but he pressured James Madison U to stop selling emergency contraception on campus, equating it to taxpayer funded abortion, voted to allow discrimination against LGBT state employees, and supported fetal personhood bills., just like our current AG Cuccinelli
ReplyDeleteVirginia Voter
This says it all from his website:
DeleteSenator Mark Obenshain
First the national Democratic Party leadership abandoned any pretext of standing for mainstream values when it dropped references to God from the party platform.
senatorobenshain.com
Virgina Voter,
DeleteBut no it can be sold there? Right? PBO made that the law it could be sold to anyone over 15 yrs old?
Just another nibble in their goal of FORCING women to have children in the future. Barefoot and pregnant. That's what these assholes want from women.
ReplyDeleteOh, and cooking and cleaning.
Little by little they are pushing for a complete domination of women and their removal from any kind of authority. No voting. No working outside the home. No anything that reduces the care given to the MAN of the house.
I wonder how long it will take them to think of a way of FORCING a pregnant woman to have sex - even when told not to by the doctor? And then charge them if they miscarry?
Of course, they will do all this in the name of christianity and god!
(And my comment is NOT in favor of what the repubes want!)
What's next? Jail time for male masturbators and menstruating women? I can see more impetus to prosecute the former, because hey, it's fun to masturbate and any fun associated with sex is BAD. BAD! BAD! BAD!
ReplyDeleteWhat is WRONG with these fatheads? I'm damned glad I live in NYC. I'd go starkers if I was surrounded by these Lo-IQ nut-jobs. Sheesh.
Where in the world is the AMA and the even more relevant medical associations, like the Amer. College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists? The silence of the country's medical community while the GOP and their teabagger buddies ravage women's health care is criminal.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Yeah. Where?
DeleteThe really weird thing about these mysogynistic Repubs is that they are married.
ReplyDeleteWhich raises a few questions: 1. How can a man be married and yet hold views displaying a complete lack of understanding and/or empathy about/towards women?
and 2. Why did their wives marry them in the first place?
I always wonder the same thing, and then I wonder about their daughters.
DeleteThink bible.
DeleteThen think bible BELT.
Then think bible belt brainwashing.
You got it!
As for their daughters, many MANY of them are telling their parents to kiss off and telling them how stupid they are and are leaving their so-called religions of peace.
Unfortunately, too many of them AREN'T.
He expects to get the women's vote?
ReplyDeleteWhat is his position on tube tying? Isn't Sarah pre-aborting any possible children?
ReplyDeleteEchoing one of the comments above, most miscarriages take place very early on in a pregnancy -- and it's the body's way of saying that there was something wrong, and the pregnancy shouldn't continue. Having had a miscarriage, I can tell you that it causes grief and mourning, no matter at what stage it comes. A miscarriage is an INVOLUNTARY loss of a fetus. For this, a woman is responsible? How is he going to weed out the early abortions, which is clearly what he wants to prohibit, from natural abortions, known as miscarriages? Is he going to personally check the by-product of these procedures? Will each police dept. have a pregnancy policeman, who will come to your door to inspect your person and your clothes? How will they know if a woman was four weeks pregnant, when she herself might not even be sure she is, and doesn't show any outward signs of pregnancy?
Will every woman who can reproduce -- from ages 12-55 -- have to check in with the pregnancy police each month to report the status of their reproductive systems?
The Handmaid's Tale come to life.
In YOUR (6:35) experience of a wanted pregnancy it did. For others, YMMV and the feelings can be ones of release and relief.
DeleteWho in the hell would ever want to live in the state of Virginia? Not me w/these particular Republicans running it!
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine having to have reported the loss of my much-wanted first pregnancy to the police. It was absolutely devastating--and it occurred in Virginia, where I'd gone with my husband on his business trip.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, nor can I understand forcing a woman to undergo an unnecessary vaginal ultrasound. Just had a necessary one this morning (lady parts issues, friends), and it hurt like a sonofabitch.
Way to go, Virginia. /snark off
I agree, it was one of the most devastating times in my life and very personal(sorry for your loss also).
DeleteNot the kind of thing that the police need or even want to be involved in.
Talk about government waste and intrusion
I haven't been through a miscarriage (never been pregnant), but I know people who have, and I can't imagine the horror that would be a police 'investigation' of what is most likely the worst thing that woman has ever gone through. I know what some guys' attitudes are about menstruating women; I would imagine there would be some officers who have similar 'ewww, icky!' attitudes who would be responding if this were to take effect.
DeleteThat any electorate would countenance the election of such as these makes me fear for the future.....
ReplyDeleteSo much for Republican "outreach".....
ReplyDeleteThis is an outrage. What are voters in Virginia thinking? What is to be gained by this? Their rationale eludes me. And my daughters too!
ReplyDeleteAs a woman I feel that government (state and federal) and the "majority" of men who run it are "persecuting" females primarily because we can reproduce and they believe that we shouldn't have control over that bodily process. What are they afraid of?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but 24 hours to report "the location of the remains" ????????????
ReplyDeleteAs in...the toilet? Cause when I started bleeding, that's where I went. (Not to be graphic or anything, but seriously...he started it with his asinine words.)
As if any woman who goes through the pain and disappointment and despair of losing a pregnancy should be treated as a criminal????
I probably shouldn't even be commenting I'm so mad and might say something I'd regret later.
You have every right to be mad. Many of us have endured this devastating loss. Are they really that stupid that they can't understand that the woman has done nothing to cause this.
DeleteWhy do people elect such idiots to office??????
dlbvet, you would have to go an awfully long way over the line to say anything I would regret hearing said of these fools.
DeleteSo have at it!
Poll: Hillary’s Numbers Remain Strong Despite Benghazi Investigation
ReplyDeleteFormer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to be held in high public esteem despite ongoing Republican criticism for her handling of the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday.
The poll found a huge majority of Americans — 62 percent — approve of the way Clinton, who stepped down from her post earlier this year, handled her job at the State Department compared with 28 percent who said they disapprove of her job performance. Those numbers are little different from an ABC/WaPo poll in December of last year, when 68 percent said they approved of her job at State and 22 percent said they disapproved.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/05/21/hillary-clinton-remains-teflon-despite-benghazi/
GOP Aides Mock House Republicans’ ‘Crazy’ Benghazi Witch-Hunt
ReplyDeleteGOP aides are criticizing the House Republicans’ partisan witch-hunt over the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year, arguing that the Party should focus more on substantive issues, such as lessons learned and how to recalibrate diplomatic security.
Roll Call reports that Republican aides are saying staffers are getting bogged down chasing bogus accusations.
“We have got to get past that and figure out what are we going to do going forward,” a GOP aide told Roll Call. “Some of the accusations, I mean you wouldn’t believe some of this stuff. It’s just — I mean, you’ve got to be on Mars to come up with some of this stuff.” Another aide expressed frustration at accusations that military assets weren’t properly deployed during the night of the attacks and that a team from Tripoli could have been flown in to fight off the attackers:
“There are some real issues there and then there is just some crazy stuff,” the senior House GOP aide said. “The crazy stuff is, you know, the airman in Ramstein [Air Base, Germany,] that knew that the Predator [drone] was armed. There are no armed Predators in the region there. The [status of forces agreement] does not allow us to fly them armed, and everybody knows it.” [...]
GOP aides described another criticism aired at a recent House Oversight Committee hearing that there were four security officers at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli who were ordered to remain in the capital for several hours after the first reports of an attack, rather than being scrambled to assist the consulate in Benghazi.
“The stand-down order was for four guys,” the GOP aide said. “When you step back and say how were the people killed at the annex, they were killed by an indirect fire mortar round. Four more M-4s [rifles] inside the annex doesn’t change that outcome. In fact, they might have just created more casualties. We have got to get down to what really happened on the DoD side and for us the DoD side was not properly postured, why?”
It appears that some Republicans are also beginning to see that the GOP’s Benghazi affair isn’t paying dividends. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed away from some Republicans’ baseless claims of an Obama White House cover-up. And Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) in an interview on Fox News on Monday warned his colleagues about taking the issue too far:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/21/2040941/gop-aides-crazy-benghazi/
I would have had to call 911 and ask if it was ok to flush?
ReplyDeleteThe only person the woman needs to mention it to her her doctor, and he cannot report it to the police. It is part of her medical history, but nature aborts a number of pregnancies that have no chance of surviving, and that's nothing that the police have any background to deal with. Let's make it a crime that every time a man ejaculates and his sperm is wasted, another life is wasted, too. That's murder, and he will have to report himself to the police.
ReplyDeleteThat makes me a serial killer of epic proportions.
DeleteAre these the same people who complain about the nanny state and getting the government off their backs? It works that way for both sexes. Get out our our panties, you dirty old men! What do we have to do? Report our monthly periods so you'll know if we're late and you can get the abortion police to stand guard over our private parts for 9 months?
ReplyDeleteSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
DeleteDon't give them any ideas!
Former dictator Ceausescu of Romania made all contraception and abortion illegal and decreed that women should be subjected to pelvic exams at work to make sure they didn't break the law. See here:
ReplyDelete"More instructive is what happens in a country when abortion is made illegal and access to safe abortion is taken away. Before 1966, Romanian women - like their neighbors in other Eastern European countries - had access to safe abortion through the country's health care system. In 1966 Romanian President Nicolae Ceaucescu introduced pronatalist policies, outlawed abortion and contraception, and took measures to enforce the law. Mandatory pelvic examinations at places of employment were imposed on women of reproductive age. Informers for the security police were stationed in maternity hospitals. "
These right-wing "pro-life" policies lead to this nightmare. And under Ceausescu's policies the birth rate declined and the death rate for women rose as women sought illegal abortions, and the number of abandoned babies warehoused and neglected in state-run orphanages sky-rocketed. (Many of us remember the shocking reports from Romanian orphanages after Ceausescu was executed). There is nothing "pro-life" about this.
These people don't care. It has never been about the children. Never.
DeleteEvery woman in VA should fill out a report every time they have a period because you just never know for sure. Clog up the system and then send El Douche-o Obenshain the reports - in triplicate. Sure, it will cost the state a ton of tax money but how does one put a price on controlling women, er...I mean, LIFE?
DeleteI don't mean to curse but are you fucking kidding me. I used to be a wishy-washer pro-choice but now i am a full blown pro-choice activist. I'm donating money to whoever runs against these fool.
ReplyDeleteThe women in this country need to sort this out. We can start the tampon party ( easy to attach to hats lol). I bet sending him tampons and maxi pads would freak him out. He seems like the type that avoids the "girl" aisle.
I'm 20 weeks pregnant and last week I had a rude pro-life couple come up to me telling me it was so nice to see "one of you people" choosing life. I gave her a piece of my mind when i asked her to clarify what"you people" meant and told her husband that he was lucky my husband was not with me otherwise he would have a nice man to man chat with him about accosting pregnant women with rude comments.
What the fuck is wrong with these people? I want to start a petition that the name of the state of Virginia be changed to Vagina. That is the focus of their elected "leaders'" pride, politics and patriotism. (at least for the men)
ReplyDeleteMen like this really creep me out big time. Why is it that men like this always look like guys who can't attract women? Do the cops in Virginia have the resources to enforce something like this?
ReplyDeleteWay to attract the female vote, GOP!
Because having a miscarriage isn't traumatic enough, now I must display the fetus out for public viewing.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I really hate men.