legislative antics in Virginia

[cellio]

It's only the first week of January, and already we have a strong contender for most reprehensible legislation of the year. If this passes, then in the state of Virginia a woman who has a miscarriage will be required to notify government authorities within 12 hours or face a year in jail. Yes, you read that right. (Info from celebrin.)

I am rarely speechless, but I'm having trouble putting my outrage into words right now.

Update Sat 9:30pm: According to the person who posted the news initially, there has been some progress based on the huge outcry (thanks to paquerette for the update). There's still more that needs to be done, but the response from the blogosphere seems to have made a difference. Stay tuned.

Comments

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I just posted this in my journal too. I can't imagine that people are going to agree to abide by this law.

I also forsee that if it passes there are going to be a lot of husbands making calls along the lines of "I'd like to report a miscarriage." That's not going to go over well.

[cellio]

It smells like one of those laws that can really only be used for harrassment (as someone else pointed out below). Ridiculous.