New law will require marriage as a legal condition of motherhood

**Jessika** · 10-05-2005, 03:04 PM

I can KIND OF understand where they're coming from with that. I mean it would certainly cut down on teenage pregnancies.

To tell you the truth though I can't imagine having a child with someone that I WASN'T going to spend the rest of my life with.

**Ally Cat's Mommy** · 10-05-2005, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Jessika

I can KIND OF understand where they're coming from with that. I mean it would certainly cut down on teenage pregnancies.

I don't see how it will cut down on teenage pregnancies - the law is to prevent unmarried women from getting pregnant using artificial means - I am sure most teenage pregnancies happen the "old-fashioned" way.

IMHO it just limits the choices open to a mature woman who has decided she is ready for motherhood without being in a long-term relationship with a man. Personally I'd rather go to a donor-clinic than pick up a stranger in a bar!!

You are right Kim - laws like this will hopefully thankfully never be passed, but the scary thing is the amount of time money and effort which is spent on them in the first place!

**Jessika** · 10-05-2005, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by Ally Cat's Mommy

I don't see how it will cut down on teenage pregnancies - the law is to prevent unmarried women from getting pregnant using artificial means - I am sure most teenage pregnancies happen the "old-fashioned" way.

I was talking about how they would need to be required to be married in order to have a child, not about the consequences for other forms of insemination other than sexual intercourse :P

I can certainly not name off one 16 or 17 year old girl who is ready to get married if she gets pregnant because of one of her many careless flings. (don't get me wrong it isn't all the girls' faults, the young teenage boys don't even need to be doing it, either).

EDIT: And don't think I'm saying I'm for this or anything, I'm not at all. I'm just saying on that aspect I can perhaps see both sides.

**Karen** · 10-05-2005, 03:34 PM

But what will they do when teens get pregnant? It is not as if the laws in place currently against sex between minors, etc. have any kind of effect at all in the teen pregnancy rate. Are they then going to terminate the pregnancies of unmarried women of any age? What kind of totalitarian state is Indiana trying to become?

I understand that they think a two-parent home is best, but there are other ways to do this than making single mothers criminals!

**grybai** · 10-05-2005, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by Jessika

I was talking about how they would need to be required to be married in order to have a child, not about the consequences for other forms of insemination other than sexual intercourse :P.

I think maybe you misread the article. The law would just prevent women from becoming artificially inseminated if she is unwed. It's not like could enforce premarital sex and they are not going to take her child away if she is not married. So, it has nothing to do with teenage pregnancies.

It's so silly and I just don't understand what good it would do. Women who choose to be artificially insemenated are doing so because they want to have a child and have planned for it. It seems like parents who become so accidently would be a much bigger problem. There are many women who are ready to become mothers and who either haven't yet found a partner or don't want one. What's wrong with that? There also a gay issue here. I am a lesbian and I hope to have a child through artificial insemination some time in the next ten years and at this point in time, it is illegal for me to get married in nearly every state.

Sometimes I really think the status of women has improved a good deal, but things like this make me feel like we're taking a giant leap backwards.

**carole** · 10-05-2005, 04:14 PM

I agree with your last statement so much, woman have been opressed for so long, this is just another attempt and hopefully a failed one at doing that yet again, I for one get so sick and tired of woman being treated as second class citizens.

**Jessika** · 10-05-2005, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by grybai

I think maybe you misread the article. The law would just prevent women from becoming artificially inseminated if she is unwed. It's not like could enforce premarital sex and they are not going to take her child away if she is not married. So, it has nothing to do with teenage pregnancies.

The very first paragraph states:

Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make
marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana,
including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do
become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

INCLUDING women who become pregnant by means other than sexual intercourse. So its not LIMITED to that, but also includes it, and that is what I was referring to.

**DJFyrewolf36** · 10-05-2005, 04:32 PM

The intent of this law is to prevent unmarried women from getting pregnant by artificial means, however the law does read "Including artificial means" which can be interpreted by a court to mean that ALL pregnancies that occur in unwed women can be targeted as illigal. I'd have to read the actuall bill to make a final determination though. Do you have a link to it?

How in the world can they enforce a law like this? If it does only apply to artificial insemination, then of course the law can be enforced like any other law that bans a medical procedure but then you'll have the problem that plagued people when abortion was illigal: Backyard clinics doing things the black-market way and the result will be women that are siriously injured or killed. Now, what are they planning on doing if they wish to make it illigal to be a single mother in any circumstance? Forced Abortions? I think that will fly like a lead ballon in a lightning storm.

**ramanth** · 10-06-2005, 08:28 AM

Liz, thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear the Senator had a change of heart.

Originally Posted by DJFyrewolf36

I'd have to read the actuall bill to make a final determination though. Do you have a link to it?

This link was nestled in the article.

http://www.in.gov/legislative/interi...lim/HFCO04.pdf

Does it have the info you were looking for?

**KYS** · 10-05-2005, 03:42 PM

I do not see how it will cut down on teenage pregnancies and only takes
away freedom for woman.

Disturbing is right!
Sounds mighty backwards to me.

**carole** · 10-05-2005, 04:08 PM

What I find scarey is that anyone in their right mind actually thinks that having such a law would be a good thing, making single mothers criminals would be outrageous, thank goodness there is no chance of this being passed.