A Republican legislator in New Mexico is seeking to force pregnant rape
victims to carry the pregnancy to term, claiming the fetus could be used
as "evidence" at trial.
Rep. Cathrynn Brown's bill would charge a rape victim who sought an abortion with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence," The Huffington Post reported Wednesday.
"Tampering with evidence consists of destroying, changing, hiding,
placing or fabricating any physical evidence with intent to prevent the
apprehension, prosecution or conviction of any person or to throw
suspicion of the commission of a crime upon another," House Bill 206 reads.
"Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an
abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a
fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with
the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," it adds.
And while the bill is unlikely to survive the Democrat-controlled
state legislature according to HuffPost, it has enraged activists all
the same.
"The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces
them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” ProgressNow New
Mexico member Pat Davis told HuffPost. “According to Republican
philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry
the fetus to term in order to prove their case.“
Brown, who brags about being endorsed by Right to Life on her website, has yet to respond to Business Insider's request for more information about her bill.
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