Unintended consequences plus Republican crazy!

I think by now most of you have seen the oft-re-posted story about the crazy female lawmaker in New Mexico, state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), which would make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion after getting pregnant from a rape, so as to "preserve" the baby as "evidence" of the rape.

Her excuse is that this "protects" the woman from being "forced" to have an abortion by the rapist to dispose of evidence of the rape - as if a rape kit, properly taken, isn't enough all by itself.

While I agree totally that this is the absolutely worst possible reason to criminalize abortion, there is another reason to be wary of something like this as well.

As if women aren't already intimidated enough by the legal process of getting a rape kit taken and having to live the rape all over again as part of the gathering of evidence - being told that getting rid of a baby that will remind her for the rest of her life of the bastard who raped her is now illegal, forcing her to have that baby, wanted or not - is much more likely to make her refuse to ever report the rape, just in case she gets pregnant!  After all, if a rape never happened, it can't fall under the provisions of that law, now can it?

Its called preserving your options, and as hard as it is now to get women to report rapes, this is much more likely to cut the current rate in half as it is to help convict a single rapist.  At least in New Mexico.

This law makes the plight of victims of rape worse, not better!

When she heard of this, my dear cyber-wife noted that this Brown lady must hate women.  She must hate her mother, herself and any other woman in her life to want to punish women so badly, she said.  Well, I'm a guy, so I won't presume to know whether that is true or not, but I agree that the word punish is an appropriate one!

I surely hope that women all over New Mexico get on the phone and tell this woman just what they think about her "protection" idea.

I hope it falls flat on its face.