I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until my face turns red; putting restrictions on and criminalizing abortion does not stop it.
In the case of Purvi Partel, we don’t know if she had a miscarriage, as she says. We don’t know if she intentionally ended her pregnancy. All we know is she is going to serve 20 years in prison for feticide and child neglect.
There’s a whole lot of fuckery going on here. The use of the 17th century “lung float” test, which is widely discredited and sounds like it’s left over from the Salem Witch Trials. The contradiction of charging her for killing the fetus…and for abandoning a living child. The charge of using illegal abortion pills that weren’t detected in her or the fetus’ blood. The fact that police started questioning her and gathering evidence against her while she still lay in a hospital bed- no rights read to her, no attorney present.
Even if Patel self-aborted, is this something we want to jail women for? Jail them for decades? Patel needs support, not punishment. This is what happens when we set up barriers for women to get safe abortions and stigmatize it.
If her pregnancy was intended, no one would question her whatsoever.
Imprisoned for a miscarriage sounds like some sort of fucked up dream some anti-choice loony came up with. Sadly, it looks like it’s now a reality.
