Mississippi may soon be able to imprison women for stillbirths and miscarriages. Yeah, you heard that right.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

On March 14, 2009, 31 weeks into her pregnancy, Nina Buckhalter gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. She named the child Hayley Jade. Two months later, a grand jury in Lamar County, Mississippi, indicted Buckhalter for manslaughter, claiming that the then-29-year-old woman "did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, kill Hayley Jade Buckhalter, a human being, by culpable negligence." 

The district attorney argued that methamphetamine detected in Buckhalter's system caused Hayley Jade's death. The state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case on April 2, is expected to rule soon on whether the prosecution can move forward. If prosecutors prevail in this case, the state would be setting a "dangerous precedent" that "unintentional pregnancy loss can be treated as a form of homicide," says Farah Diaz-Tello, a staff attorney with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a nonprofit legal organization that has joined with Robert McDuff, a Mississippi civil rights lawyer, to defend Buckhalter. If Buckhalter's case goes forward, NAPW fears it could spur a wave of similar prosecutions in Mississippi and other states. 

Mississippi's manslaughter laws were not intended to apply in cases of stillbirths and miscarriages. Four times between 1998 through 2002, Mississippi lawmakers rejected proposals that would have set specific penalties for damaging a fetus by using illegal drugs during pregnancy. But Mississippi prosecutors say that two other state laws allow them to charge Buckhalter. One defines of manslaughter as the "killing of a human being, by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence of another"; another includes "an unborn child at every stage of gestation from conception until live birth" in the state's definition of human beings. 

The cause of any given miscarriage or stillbirth is difficult to determine, and many experts believe there is no conclusive evidence that exposure to drugs in utero can cause a miscarriage or stillbirth. Because of this, prosecuting Buckhalter opens the door to investigating and prosecuting women for any number of other potential causes of a miscarriage or stillbirth, her lawyers argued in a filing to the state Supreme Court—"smoking, drinking alcohol, using drugs, exercising against doctor's orders, or failing to follow advice regarding conditions such as obesity or hypertension." Supreme Court Justice Leslie D. King also raised this question in the oral arguments last month: "Doctors say women should avoid herbal tea, things like unpasteurized cheese, lunch meats. Exactly what are the boundaries?"

In these mostly red states all over the country lawmakers have been passing law after law to slowly create an environment where women are once again reduced to nothing more than breeding stock. Late term abortion restrictions, personhood amendments, vaginal probes, enforced waiting periods, defunding Planned Parenthood, all done to take back control of women's bodies.

After all in many of these places it is understood that those bodies do not belong to the women who operate them, they belong to God. And only He can determine what a woman can, and cannot do with it. And, of course, his will is determined by his representative on earth, the man.

So little by little, restriction by restriction, legislation by legislation, and now conviction by conviction, women are being reduced to property. Property of God, property of the state, or property of their men, no matter how you see it, you cannot help but see freedoms being stripped away from the woman.

And all of this has been happening in 2013, right before our eyes. But member, there is NO war on women.

Michele Bachmann solidifies pro-life credibility by speaking out about miscarriage. That sound you hear is Sarah Palin banging her head against the wall.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

So this is what an “evangelical feminist” looks like.

During a week of speculation in the religion blogosphere about how Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann embodies the term, the GOP presidential candidate hinted at why that worldview may inform her politics and connect her to constituents.

At a South Carolina campaign event Wednesday night, she shared that she became certain of her antiabortion beliefs after having a miscarriage.

“Part of our faith is standing for the area of life. and we are completely committed,” Bachmann said of herself and her husband. “After our second child was born, we became pregnant with a third baby, and it was an unexpected baby, but of course we were delighted to have this child. And the child was coming along, and we ended up losing that child. And it was devastating for both of us, as you can imagine if any of you have lost a child.”

“At that moment we didn’t think of ourselves as overly career-minded or overly materialistic. When we lost that child, it changed us. And it changed us forever.”

“And so we made a commitment that no matter how many children were brought into our life we would receive them, because we’re committed to life. And we didn’t know it at that time that we’d be foster parents and that one day we’d be parents of 28 children, but we are extremely grateful for that opportunity because you can get money wrong, but you can’t get life wrong. And I am committed to life.”

You just know that somewhere Sarah is screaming, "A miscarriage?  That's all it takes? Dammit I actually HAD one of those!"

But instead of taking the simple route, Palin faked a Readers Digest version of a pregnancy, and is now saddled with raising a special needs child as a result of her desperate gamble to get the kind of pro-life status that Bachmann just received by talking about a child to whom she DIDN'T give birth.

The irony is just too rich!

Now I am certainly NOT a Michele Bachmann fan, but this is yet another illustration of just how much more intelligent she is than the Grizzled Mama from the north.

(P.S. How much would you NOT like to be the Palin family refrigerator today?)