California isn’t ready to ‘legalize infanticide’ – FactCheck.org


quick take

A California bill would eliminate mandatory investigations of stillbirths. Opponents misleadingly claim that it would “legalize infanticide.” The bill would prevent prosecution in cases of “perinatal death from a pregnancy-related cause.” But authorities would investigate if there was evidence of foul play leading to the death of a baby.


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a california invoice that it would protect parents from investigation and prosecution if they lose or choose to terminate a pregnancy has become a falsehood that the state is willing to “legalize infanticide.”

The pastor of a southern California megachurchfor example, posted a message on Facebook stating that the bill would “legalize infanticide!”

Other opponents have been posting similar things. claim (it isincluding Jenna Ellis, a member of former President Donald Trump’s campaign legal team, who wrote on facebook, “This is INCREDIBLY evil. California Democrats are trying to legalize the killing of children up to 28 days of age.”

But there is no bill in the California state legislature that makes it legal to kill a person of any age. What these posts refer to is Assembly Bill 2223which is part of a list of legislation supported by the Affiliates of Planned Parenthood of California and the California Abortion Future Council that aim to strengthen the protection of the right to abortion in California like some other states have reduced access.

The bill says:

Assembly Bill 2223, as amended April 6: Pregnancies can end in a variety of outcomes. Nationwide, one in five known pregnancies ends in miscarriage. In California, up to 2,365 pregnancies per year end in stillbirth, which means perinatal loss after 20 weeks of gestation. Many pregnancy losses have no known explanation.

People also need to end pregnancies through abortion, including self-managed abortion, which means ending one’s pregnancy outside the medical system.

Every Californian should have the right to feel confident that she can seek medical care during her pregnancy without fear of civil or criminal liability.

The threat of criminal prosecution of pregnancy outcomes stems in part from outdated provisions that give medical examiners a duty to investigate certain abortions and miscarriages. Based on these provisions, health care providers and institutions report individuals to law enforcement for miscarriages, leading to damaging investigations and even unlawful prosecutions.

The civil and criminal penalties imposed on pregnant people are a critical issue for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, who experience adverse pregnancy outcomes as a result of systemic racial inequalities and are more likely to be under the scrutiny of state systems such as child welfare or immigration.

The threat of criminal prosecutions or civil penalties against pregnant individuals through child welfare, immigration, housing, or other legal systems has a deleterious effect on individual and public health. When a person fears that the state will take action against her in relation to her pregnancy, he is less likely to seek medical attention when he needs it. If they do seek care, punishing them for actual, potential, or suspected pregnancy outcomes interferes with professional care and jeopardizes the relationship between providers and patients.

So that describes the general intent of the bill. The confusion that it could somehow “legalize infanticide” appears to stem from an earlier version of the bill, which was introduced in February.

In that versionpart of the bill stated (emphasis ours), “Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of his rights, based on his actions or omissions with regarding your pregnancy or the actual, potential, or suspected outcome of the pregnancy, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.”

The term “perinatal death” can include both stillbirth and death that occurs within a few days or weeks of birth.

An Assembly Judiciary Committee analysis prepared for an April 5 hearing on the bill suggested clarifying that section as, according to the report, “the language could lead to an unintended and undesirable conclusion.”

The report continued: “As currently printed, it may not be sufficiently clear that ‘perinatal death’ is intended to result from a complication of pregnancy. Therefore, the bill could be interpreted to immunize a pregnant person from all criminal penalties for all outcomes of pregnancy, including the death of a newborn for any reason during the ‘perinatal’ period after birth, including a cause of death not attributable to pregnancy. complications, which is clearly not the author’s intention.”

The language of the bill was later changed to read, “perinatal death due to pregnancy-related cause.” The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, took Twitter the same day as the hearing of the committee to deal with complaints of legalized infanticide.

“Let me be clear: #AB2223 does not stop the state from keeping children safe. This is not a bill about infanticide. It’s about protecting Californians experiencing pregnancy loss from being wrongfully investigated, prosecuted, or imprisoned. Full stop,” she wrote, before going on to highlight the change in language.

Still, the claims have persisted, as the examples above show.

We asked Khiara Bridgesprofessor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, to explain whether or not there would be any risk that the law would permit the killing of infants or children.

“Even before you add that language, it’s absurd to think that it would legalize infanticide,” Bridges said.

“No judge in the world would understand the murder of a baby that was born outside the womb as a result of a pregnancy,” which is what the bill focuses on: making sure that parents are not criminalized for the result of a pregnancy. .

If there is evidence of foul play that led to the death of an infant or child, authorities will investigate as usual, he said.

“This bill does not immunize that behavior at all. It will be investigated,” Bridges said.

Therefore, claims that California is about to “legalize infanticide” or “legalize child murder” are false.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.

Sources

California State Assembly. “AB-2223 An act to amend Section 27491 of the Government Code, and to amend Sections 103005, 123462, 123466 and 123468, to add Sections 123467 and 123469, and to repeal Section 103000 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to reproductive health.” Modified on April 6, 2022.

Gonzalez, Oriana. “Republican states rush to enact new abortion restrictions.” Axios. April 19, 2022.

American Academy of Pediatrics. “Standard Terminology for Fetal, Infant, and Perinatal Deaths.” Retrieved April 22, 2022.

Assembly Committee on the Judiciary. AB 2223 (Mechas) – Amended March 17, 2022. April 3, 2022.

Wicks, Buffy (@BuffyWicks). Thread. Twitter. April 5, 2022.

Bridges, Khiara. Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of California at Berkeley. Telephone interview with FactCheck.org. April 21, 2022.




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