Leave it to Ohio to march backward on reproductive rights. The battle over funerals for fetuses is being fought again.
In 2016, the Indiana Legislature passed HB 1337, which then-Gov. Mike Pence signed into law. Among other things, HB 1337 said that “a miscarried or aborted fetus must be interred or cremated,” with several specifications to make sure that that would actually happen and could be verified. The law specifies that the miscarried or aborted fetus does not have to be given a name by the mother, the process can be kept anonymous, and more than one fetus can be cremated at a time.
The bill made its way through appeals courts before reaching the Supreme Court, which on May 28 rejected a number of its passages. Yet the Supreme Court upheld the part about disposal of fetal remains. That part of the legislation remains in force, and it has far-reaching consequences.
“Personhood” is a term that you don’t see used often because it carries huge legal implications that the Forced Birthers would rather avoid. Yet, to require a funeral specifically implies that a person is being buried.
Argentina moves closer to historic abortion legalization.
A pro-abortion movement, symbolized by a green handkerchief, has swept through Latin America, where abortion is punishable by law
Belén ended up in jail after suffering a spontaneous miscarriage. Unaware that she was pregnant, the 25-year-old went to seek medical care at a hospital in Argentina’s northern province of Tucumán when she suffered abdominal pain.
In accordance with Argentina’s stringent anti-abortion legislation, Belén (not her real name) was reported by the hospital to the authorities and sentenced to eight years in prison for homicide. She did not regain her freedom until almost three years later, in 2017, after a feminist lawyer who took up her case convinced the Tucumán supreme court to overturn her conviction…
In Latin America, abortion is legal only in Cuba and Uruguay, both small countries where the Catholic church has less influence...
A change in the law in Argentina, the home country of Pope Francis, would send a loud signal across a region where demand for legal abortion continues to grow.