Well, I made fun of Alabama in May, when the state passed the nation’s most restrictive ban on abortion, its lawmakers announcing proudly they made it so harsh that it would have to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Those Alabama men said they wanted to force the court to reverse Roe v. Wade.
I have to give the good folks in that state credit. Their behavior turned out to be worse than I ever could have guessed.
Now we have the State of Alabama v. Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old woman from Birmingham who was shot in the stomach last year in the parking lot of a Dollar General store during an argument with another woman over who was the father of her baby,
Well, she may have been shot, but it was the pregnant woman’s unborn baby who died. The shooter, another woman, was not charged. But a grand jury indicted Jones for manslaughter.
“The. Investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,” said Pleasant Grove Police Lt. Danny Reid, according to the Birmingham News website. “Let’s not lose sight that the unborn baby is the victim here. She had no choice in being brought unnecessarily into a fight where she was relying on her mother for protection.”
The judge in the case ordered her jailed and set her bond at $50,000 after she was indicted by an Alabama Grand Jury. This week, her attorney asked a judge to dismiss the charge, calling it an “unreasonable, unfounded, and unjust indictment…”
A hearing his motion was set for later this month.
Just think about that for a minute. Pregnant women, who can not get an abortion in the state, are responsible for the health of the baby in their womb. Not only that, but they are responsible for its health and safety until it is born. Then the other laws take over, the ones that let parents get arrested for mistreating their children.
So, just for fun, let’s make a list of places where pregnant women shouldn’t be allowed to go, just in case harm might come to their fetus. You know, the kind of places where pushing and shoving can break out, or where people yell and get abusive or drunk. Or where they might be out in the sun too long and not get enough water, or where the mother might be subject to any physical stress that might harm their unborn child.
But, those are the easy things under the new Alabama code. The question in that state now becomes just how good a woman is in foreseeing a danger.
Let’s look at some examples. She can’t go into a bar where people are drinking and might get intoxicated and get involved in a fight that might lead to someone knocking her down quit unintentionally. Heck, she shouldn’t be drinking in the first place.
But what if she is in an upscale restaurant which is serving wine, and the couple at the next table start arguing and the same thing happens. Would she be charged with manslaughter if she is knocked off her chair by the anger-filled husband at the next table as he stumbles out of his chair? What if it’s just a crowded restaurant and a waiter slips as he is walking past with an overloaded tray?
Too far out for you? Just two words to reflect on - Marshae Jones.
How about a pregnant woman going into a crowded football stadium to see the Crimson Tide play Ole Miss, which gave the Tide its only loss last season. Lots of yelling, lots of rowdy fans. How could she endanger her unborn child by going to that stadium?
In fact, how could she get into a car and drive on any public road where she might have a car accident? Or go to a concert, or maybe a supermarket. We all know how dangerous supermarket parking lots are.
Well, a well-reported story in the Montgomery Advertiser points out that the District Attorney’s office has not decided if it will prosecute the case, despite the local grand jury indictment.
Because it is a well-reported story, it looks at all the issues in the case - there are many - and all the problems with the shooting incident and with the law and with the way it was applied. All different issues, all difficult to explain.
You could look it up. It will just take a minute or two to find on the internet. Or, you could wait for a full explanation in your local newspaper - which probably doesn’t have the room to cover it, or the staff to do the work - or you could just listen to people talk about little bits of the case.
Wait, that might put some of the blame on me, too. Well, with blogs (and a lot of other things) you get what you pay for. Maybe you should look this all up yourself.
