UPDATE: ‘Horrified’ Rep. Cathrynn Brown Now Backtracks on ‘Rape-Baby Is Evidence’ Bill
The Original Post:
WHAT???New Mexico Bill Would Criminalize Abortions After Rape as ‘Tampering With Evidence’
“I missed this one,” she said, explaining that when she reviewed the draft of her bill, she missed the language problems that led to misinterpretation of her bill.
Albuquerque Rep. Nate Gentry supported Brown’s assertion, adding, “She’s horrified.”
She said the bill is being reworked for clarity.
“Horrified.” She’s a lawyer and a legislator. Didn’t anyone teach her along the way to proofread her work before she publishes it? We writers get killed for getting it wrong, but a legislator who puts a bill on the table?? Wow. Though, to her credit, she did go back in to tweak the verbiage of the bill to specify:
“A person who commits sexual penetration or incest and who procures an abortion of a fetus resulting from the crime with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime is guilty of tampering with evidence, prohibiting prosecution of the mother of the fetus … In no circumstance shall the mother of the fetus be charged.”
So, in other words, if the rapist sticks around to convince the rape victim to get an abortion, that’s the crime: “tampering with evidence.” But if that’s the case, and despite Brown’s insistence that “the mother of the fetus would never be charged,” if the rapee agrees to said abortion (and clearly she’d have to be involved), wouldn’t she be a colluder? An accomplice? Dear God, can you see how complicated this could get?
More: ‘Horrified’ Rep. Cathrynn Brown Now Backtracks on ‘Rape-Baby Is Evidence’ Bill