W-O-W. I didn't think the AZ legislature could possibly be exceeded in outrageous nuttiness. Well played, state rep Brown *slow clap*.

Some read "The Handmaid's Tale" and see a chilling warning.

Others, apparently, see a how-to manual.

They also need to make it mandatory that the woman marry her rapist, as the Bible requires, and so the child has a mother and a father.

Fetus as evidence? Is the crime lab supposed to induce delivery at 6 months?

You can get DNA from amniotic fluid. And besides, if a woman goes to the police she is taken to the ER for a vaginal swab. Either way, she doesn't need to carry it to term to get evidence.

@1) Arizona and New Mexico: Similar maybe, but not the same.

@2: Yes, I saw that. I was just using AZ as my point of reference for legislative nuttiness, as I always do nowadays.

I'm really confused about how abortion precludes analysis of the fetus's DNA.

The only way to reeeeeeeally be sure if the accused is the father is to see if the baby looks like him.

o_O

Pretty sure you can get DNA from the dead aborted fetus.

5, 8, 11: too science-y. @9 has it. Representative Brown imagines the jurors in deliberation saying things like "The little nipper's the spittin' image of his maw!" and "Nope, don't look a bit like Cletus."

draw a line across the US at the 37th parallel. south of that is the bulk of our problems. except SoCal of course - you're awesome!

This is so stupid. I don't only mean that the congressperson would think that a baby would need to be evidence—that's clearly a ruse—I mean that the congressperson would think that none of her constituency has ever seen CSI, Law and Order, NCIS or ...you know, she must think that they don't have televisions.

Just another money waster. If it does actually make it into law, it will be challenged for its constitutionality, thus insuring that more lawyers make more money off of the taxpayers, because stupid politicians make stupid laws. This is so unconstitutional that even most 10 year olds would roll their eyes. Yes, even kids know you can get DNA off of the aborted fetus.

Why do we waste time typing "republican" when the much shorter word "scum" means the exact same thing?

5: Exactly. This isn't based on a practical desire to better prosecute rape crimes. It's based on a desire to re-rape a rape victim by forcing her to birth her rape-baby. Forcing a rape victim to carry her fetus to term accomplishes nothing as far as evidence is concerned.

Republicans are nothing more than rapists who figured out that you can rape way more women through legislation than you ever could the old-fashioned way.

"Furthermore, any shooting victim who gets their wound treated will also be jailed for tampering with evidence, especially if they're some cunty broad with a vagina." - GOP 2013 (and that's what their WOMEN think)

Holy crap. I am gob-stopped.

Okay, call me totally clueless, but I don't get it. "Thank-you note?"

Keep talking republican fuckers. I'd rather you be honest about the rotting ideas you harbor about rape and women so we can vote you the fuck out of office and help make your party totally irrelevant.

It's like the GOP just got done taking a shellacking, then went next door to the Shellacking Store and said "I'll take one of everything."

20: I'm pretty sure he means "thanks for unveiling your idiocy so clearly and therefore ensuring Democratic electoral victories in the future."

That's criminally insane.

Will she later be submitting a bill requiring conception for rape? Because if the woman didn't get pregnant, no harm, no foul?

From the bill:
"B. 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."

How could a prosecutor possibly prove that a woman had an abortion "with the intent to destroy evidence of a crime"?

The bloody cunt isn’t even intelligent enough to write legislation that could even be successfully litigated.

My prose are poor, I'm pissed...

#16- I think a shorter and more appropriate way to write "Republican" would be 'Pube, since that's where their brains are.

@20 Explaining why something is humorous is a sure way to kill whatever humor is left in it, but you tempt me to employ my ponderous powers of pedantry.

See... The title of the post is "Working Hard to Widen the Gender Gap." By "gender gap," we mean the way men and women have been shown to differ as a group in their preference for one party or candidate in an election. Dan's premise seems to be that by coming up with another, more spectacularly and transparently offensive, inhumane, anti-woman piece of legislation, a Republican legislator has made it more likely that a woman going to the polls is going to be averse to voting for the Republicans than a man is. And, without "the women's vote," which is actually more than 50% of the electorate, the GOP is going to have a harder time winning an election.

Aside from that, Brown's legislation is a knee-slapper all on its own. The Onion, bless it's heart, couldn't have done better in a broad parody of Republican legislation.

This the following note I sent to Rep. Brown:

Rep, Brown,

I am appalled at your recent recommendation that rape victims will be criminalized if they have an abortion as "Tampering with evidence". Do you intend to inform such a child that they are the result of rape? So a fetus is now just evidence? Your lack of understanding and sympathy for ape victims is beyond incomprehensible and unchristian in it's lack of charity.

How dare you.

Angrily,

A Mc

If you are offended let HER know. Talking amongst ourselves achieves nothing.

I didn't realize the legislature was playing limbo. I believe the Republicans won that round.

@22 FTW. They keep on shooting their feet, but thankfully the liberal media is now reporting on it.

@30 -- I don't intend to let her know. I WANT the Republicans to keep doing shit like this so that they end up more and more to the fringe.

Also, @3 -- So FUNNY!

If abortions after rape become a felony, while abortions after consensual sex remain legal, women will stop reporting rapes. If passed, this despicable legislation will literally be a get-out-of-jail-free card for rapists.

Pro-lifers call me a monster because I don't think a fetus has the same worth as a born baby, thus how I can support legal abortion and not legal infanticide. This woman appears to view fetuses as nothing but evidence. Who's dehumanizing now?

Incidentally, I know it's not really fair, but I always get a little sad when I see women being stupid like this. Yeah, men should know better, but I'm not surprised by men's ridiculousness over abortion anymore. Women, though, I hold to a higher standard.

I initially read this elsewhere as "Mexico" instead of "New Mexico" and when I corrected it for my boyfriend later, he actually found it less surprising.