A bill sponsored by Representative Carl Wimmer that passed amends the Utah Criminal Code to describe the difference between abortion and criminal homicide of an unborn child and to make it possible to put a woman on trial for killing an unborn child. This bill was created in response to the Utah case that happened in May 2009 when a 17-year-old girl paid $150 for a man to beat her while she was seven months pregnant. People worried about the original bill because, for example, if a pregnant woman falls and miscarries, she could have been put on trial. The bill was amended so that an abortion means that the woman either has to be prescribed a prescription by the doctor to abort the fetus or she has to go to a physician to abort the fetus through surgery. The definition of criminal homicide of an unborn child says that the woman has followed through with a reckless act with the intentions of terminating the fetus.
The government affairs director for the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Marina Lowe told The Salt Lake Tribune, "I also don't think it solves the underlying problem. The question we need to be asking ourselves as Utahns is how did we get here in the first place." I couldn’t agree with her more in the fact that this bill is not doing anything to prevent pregnancy. I think that we need to be more proactive and work more on preventing these issues. To me going about it this way is harder and definitely a longer process, rather than focusing on contraception. If women, especially teenagers had easier access to contraception like birth control this wouldn’t be a problem. However, the governor signed the bill on March 8, 2010, after the House of Representatives and the Senate passed it.
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