DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans in Iowa’s House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would criminalize the death of an “unborn person” — over Democrats’ concerns about how it might apply to in vitro fertilization, after an Alabama court found frozen embryos can be considered children.
Iowa’s law currently outlines penalties for termination or serious injury to a “human pregnancy,” but the proposed bill would amend the language to pertain to “causing of death of, or serious injury to, an unborn person,” defined as “an individual organism … from fertilization to live birth.”
It’s one of many bills being considered by state Legislatures around the country that would expand legal and constitutional protections for embryos and fetuses, a long-time goal of the anti-abortion movement.
The bill still would need to pass the state Senate and be signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds to become law.
As a woman who still has her uterus and ovaries but who has gone into the “it’s dangerous to get pregnant at your age” territory: I’m scared shitless. My last pregnancy ended in a stillbirth and that in and of itself has scared me. I feel horrible for being thankful that it happened months before RvW got overturned. I’m just ready to get everything removed so there’s not even an iota of a chance of pregnancy.
You should be scared. It is a fucked up situation.
Vote, avoid red states, yell at organized religion, and do whatever you need to protect yourself.