New Mexico Proposed Bill For Rape Victims: Abortion is “Tampering With Evidence”

New Mexico – A bill has been proposed to legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term so the fetus can be used as evidence in a sexual assault trial.

House Bill 206 was introduced by state Republican Cathrynn Brown. The bill states that a rape victim who undergoes abortion will be charged with third-degree felony for “tampering with evidence.”

“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.”

In New Mexico, third degree felonies can carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

Opposition to the bill called it “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” said Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico.

Davis goes on to say that the Republican philosophy is that victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ have to carry the fetus so that they can prove their case.”

The bill doesn’t seem likely to pass since Democrats have the majority in New Mexico’s state legislature.

What do you think of this bill?

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Filed in: Headlines
Tagged with: incest • legitimate rape • rape • tampering with evidence • victim