The Chaff

Monday, October 18th, 2004

Another Post for Single-issue Voters

There, but for the grace of God, go we.

A tired-looking young woman opened the door four inches and peered over the chain. “Can I help you?”

Lee gave her a brief looking over. Her face was white and drawn, her eyes swollen, as if she’d been crying. Lots of them were like this; they should’ve thought of that before. “Mrs. Johnson?”

“Yes?”

He flipped open his wallet and showed her his badge. “Detective Lee. Homicide. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Her eyes widened at the sight of the badge. The door closed for a second, then opened again sans chain. “Please. Come in.”

He slipped his badge back into his pocket as he walked into the house. The living room was decorated in Generic Suburban Middle-class, everything in beige and this year’s pale blue. The normal-looking ones are always the ones to watch.

She gestured to the sofa. “Won’t you sit down?” She took a seat in the recliner, didn’t lean back, sat forward at attention. “What’s this all about?”

Lee could tell she was scared. That usually made it easier. He pulled out his notebook and tapped the screen to call up her file. “According to the hospital, your pregnancy terminated three days ago.”

She bit her lip. “Y-yes. The doctors said there was nothing they could do….”

“That’s your second miscarriage in two years, Mrs. Johnson. Care to explain that?”

“I can’t.” Her lower lip trembled as she tried not to cry. “My doctor wants to run a complete hormone scan as soon as he can. He thinks I might not be able to carry to term.”

That was an excuse he hadn’t heard in a while. His manner softened a little, just in case she wasn’t lying. “I’m sorry, but this is standard procedure. Now, how soon after conception was the pregnancy reported?”

“I don’t know, exactly….”

Lee�s eyebrows went up. “You haven’t been taking your weekly pregnancy tests? That’s a misdemeanor you know.”

“No, no,” she said quickly. “I mean, yes, I’ve been taking the tests– you can check with my doctor. What I meant was I don’t know how many days it was. At least two, many three or four.”

He nodded and made a note of that. “Well, that’s within the legal range. No trouble there. And you went on the diet as soon as you tested positive?”

“Oh, yes.” She smiled, a little, but it was mostly a sad smile. “My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for almost three years.”

Lee grunted. He’d heard that before. “I assume your husband can corroborate that. No drugs, including tobacco or alcohol?” He paused while she shook her head. “No caffeine?” Another shake, not quite so certain. “You’re sure? No coffee? Tea? Cola? Chocolate?”

She gave a tiny gasp. “I forgot. I… had an ice cream cone….”

“And when was this?”

“Um, about two weeks ago, I think. I’d have to check my dietary log.” She looked at him helplessly. “I didn’t want to do it. I had a craving.”

Another grunt. “I’ll take a look at your log in a minute. Anything else you’ve forgotten?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Do you work outside the home, Mrs. Johnson?”

“Yes. I’m a customer service representative at the airport….”

“Complaint department, huh? When did you go on leave?”

“I had another five weeks before my mandatory leave deadline.” She smiled that sad smile again. “I was going to take leave as soon as my husband got another assignment. He’s a contract programmer, and things have been a little slow.”

“You weren’t aware that customer service representative is listed as a high-stress occupation? Mandatory leave date for HSOs is four months, not six.” He glared at her accusingly and clicked his light pen off. “I’d like to see your medicine cabinet.”

She rose and led him to the stairs. He looked at the steps critically. “I assume you don’t run up and down these stairs.”

“Not unless I have to.” She shrank under his stare. “The only bathroom is upstairs. And then, sometimes, the cat�”

He cut her off quite effectively by walking up the stairs. He glanced into the bedroom and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He went into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. He clicked his pen on and began to record all the medications there, both prescription and over-the-counter. He paused at one bottle. Based on the date filled, the dosage, and a guess at the number of tablets remaining, this might be a violation.

“What’s this?” He turned and showed it to her.

“That’s for my allergies.” She smiled weakly. “This time of year, I can barely see without them.”

“You’ve been taking this?”

She flinched. “My doctor said it was okay; he said it was on the Safe List.”

“They were until three weeks ago. The FDA announced that this compound was shown to cause birth defects in laboratory mice and took it off the Safe List.”

She clapped her hands over her mouth. “I… I didn’t know!”

“Ignorance is no excuse.” He pocketed the bottle and closed the medicine cabinet. “I’m going to have to take you in for questioning, Mrs. Johnson.”

“Wh-what?”

“Abuse of an unborn child, suspicion of murder.”

She shrank away in horror. “You think I lost the baby on purpose?”

“Maybe, maybe not. We have to check it out.” He shrugged. “They’ll probably only charge you with negligent homicide, anyway.”

She let out a wail that would have split his soul if he hadn’t heard hundreds like it before. She collapsed to the floor, convulsed with hysterical sobbing. Once again he thought about asking for a transfer from the Fetal Homicide division, and once again his sense of duty pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

He laid his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t get so upset,” he murmured as he found her wrists and put the handcuffs on. “If your hormone scans do come back abnormal, you’ll get off with involuntary manslaughter, tops.”

#

During the late 1990’s, the radical fringe of the right-to-life movement gradually grew in power. The wanted posters originally issued on doctors who performed abortions began to target any outspoken member of the opposition as well, and stalking members of feminist groups became commonplace. The firebombing of the headquarters of the Abortion Rights Action League drove most of the pro-choice movement’s leaders underground for fear of continued terrorism.

Leaders of the militant faction, spurred on by the weakness in the opposition, moved against the more restrained factions, denouncing anyone who did not advocate increased violence as “abortionist infiltrators” and bullying the more conservative members of its own movement with the same terrorist tactics that had worked so well on the enemy. By 2005, the radical, militant faction had become the official voice of the entire pro-life movement.

Better organized, better funded, and fanatic enough to vote only on a single issue, the new, militant pro-life movement dominated Congressional elections for the next three years. In 2009, President Jeb Bush signed the Human Life Act, which stated: “The life of a human being is considered to begin at conception, with all rights under the law. Unborn persons have a right to life which cannot be infringed.” The law was cheered as a great victory by the anti-abortion movement, and people who expressed reservations that the law was too sweeping and general were largely ignored. Legal experts tried to warn that the wording of the law could be taken to mean that pregnant women have no rights at all.

The Supreme Court upheld the Human Life Act in two separate cases in 2010. The first case effectively outlawed not only abortion but also many forms of birth control, including all forms of the Pill and IUDs. In the second case, the Court upheld a conviction of second-degree murder against a woman who sought and obtained an illegal abortion. The majority opinion stated, “Under the law there is no difference between a fetus of four weeks and a child of four years. Any woman who knowingly and willfully causes the death of her unborn child can be considered as guilty of premeditated murder as if she had knowingly and willfully caused the death of any other human being.”

A wave of other laws followed, most notably the Fetal Rights Act of 2011, stating that women who knowingly use substances harmful to the fetus during pregnancy can be charged with child abuse. Originally intended to protect the unborn children of female drug addicts, the law was quickly extended to all harmful substances: tobacco, alcohol, sodium, caffeine, and prescription and over-the-counter drugs including antibiotics and aspirin.

The American Medical Association challenged the Fetal Rights Act on the grounds that the law was unenforceable: women could easily go as long as six weeks before they even realized they were pregnant. To facilitate enforcement, many states initiated weekly, mandatory pregnancy testing for all women of child-bearing age and ordered that all positive pregnancy tests be reported to Health and Human Services immediately. Upon notification of a positive pregnancy test, women were required to begin a diet approved by the Surgeon General and maintain a daily dietary log to prove their compliance. In some states, pregnant women were also subject to random drug tests similar to those given to probationers or parolees. Women’s rights groups and the ACLU have challenged the mandatory pregnancy tests and random drug tests on the grounds that it violated women’s right to privacy, effectively treating pregnant women like criminals. So far, the Fetal Rights Act has been upheld in all cases.

When later studies showed the stress had a detrimental effect on fetuses, Congress passed the Prenatal Leave Act of 2013, requiring working women to leave their jobs no later than the six month of their pregnancy and no later than the fourth month if they were in an occupation designated as High-Stress.

The Women’s Employment Rights Act, first proposed in 2015, would require companies to provide job security and unpaid pre-natal leaves to female employees and to continue medical insurance coverage for women on required pre-natal leaves. It would also guarantee six weeks unpaid maternity leave to female employees. It has so far failed to pass either house of Congress.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 18th, 2004 at 6:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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