Originally published at: Iowa abortion ban becomes law | Boing Boing
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Also worth remembering that the exceptions are rarely excepted. They might let you get an abortion if you’ve been raped. But in nearly every case, they haven’t.
Saying they’ll have exceptions for women who’ve miscarried is just saying they’re eventually planning on executing women who’ve had miscarriages.
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“There may or may not ever be rules promulgated,” said Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican, amid several questions from Democrats on the floor. There were no legal penalties for physicians added in the bill, she said.
“guidelines on how physicians would be punished for violating the law are left up to Iowa’s board of medicine to decide”
If Iowa’s board of medicine is made up of reasonable people, they’d have no punishment at all - so what happens then? There’s a criminal case that results in conviction… but no actual penalties for those convicted? The legislature just dumped a bunch of work on the court system for no reason? I’m used to Republican legislators being totally inept when it comes to anti-abortion legislation, but this is a new angle.
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If a physician charged with violating this law is to be tried “by a jury of their peers”, can their lawyers challenge every potential juror who isn’t a medical professional? How likely is it that a jury consisting mainly or completely of doctors, nurses, etc. would convict? Does Iowa allow jury nullification?
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If I’m understanding correctly, the law has no actual penalty itself - if you get convicted in court of breaking the law, there’s no sentence defined in the law itself. Instead, offending medical providers are supposed to be punished by Iowa’s board of medicine (who I’m presuming are doctors?), which reasonably shouldn’t give a fuck about the state law. So it would basically be that.
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: fuck those fuckers and all the fuckers who voted them into office.
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but…
And because each state has their own system
The board is composed of 10 members: five practicing M.D.s, two practicing D.O.s, and three members of the public. State law requires that five members be male and five be female. No more than five members may be affiliated with the same political party. Board members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate for a full three-year term or to complete the unexpired term of a member who resigned. Board members may serve up to nine years.
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Nobody “allows” jury nullification — juries just do it
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Kimmy is no woman’s sister.
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