Indiana bill would limit reproduction procedures for gays, singles

[sonicx]

An interim legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.

Sen. Patricia Miller (R-Indianapolis) said state law does not have regulations on assisted reproduction and should have similar requirements to adoption in Indiana.

"If were going to try to put Indiana on the map, I wouldn't go this route," said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. "It feels pretty chilling. It is governmental intrusion into a very private part of our lives."

snip

The bill defines assisted reproduction as causing pregnancy by means other than sexual intercourse, including intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, and sperm injection.

It then requires "intended parents" to be married to each other and says an unmarried person may not be an intended parent.

http://www.southernvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=2752

[smoogatz]

1. So, wait a second--if a lesbian does the turkey-baster trick

in the privacy of her own home, according to this legislation she'll have committed a crime? Thank God the Republicans are here to get the government off our backs.

[madaboutharry]

2. The very fact that someone thought

of this is evidence of how dangerously close we are to losing our country. These people are out to destroy America. This is the method by which they plan to turn this country into a Theocratic dictatorship.

[Zenlitened]

6. Exactly. It's a sign of the sickness that has taken hold.

Very disturbing, whether it become law or not. :(

[bluestateguy]

3. Indiana: the state where the KKK took over state government in the 1920's

Indeed, there are some good people in that state, but they are a minority.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[despairing optimist]

43. I'm thinking Ryan White in Kokomo, IN, circa 1983 or so

Remember the little kid with hemophilia who contracted HIV from his clotting factor and wasn't allowed to attend school out of fear that his classmates might get it from his paper cuts?

Michael Jackson and Elton John befriended Ryan and stayed with him till he died several years later. And now some people in Indiana want to pick up where they left off and inoculate themselves from gay people. I think they have it the wrong way around. Gay people should protect themselves from ignorance, hate, and hypocrisy. Any chance that Indiana can help out on that cleansing program?

I'm not having many nice impressions of Indiana myself right now.

[northzax]

64. after all, then they might have to face the fact

hey fools, guess where gay people come from?

er, straight people?

this will never pass anyway, and as soon as it does, all it will do is cost the state money defending this stupid idea in court. There has never been a legislative infringement on reproduction, and this won't take either.

yes, there have been laws on reproductive rights, such as birth control and abortion, but never a law banning conception.

[HoosierClarkie]

58. Indeed.

We are not all crazy. :)

[rocktivity]

4. It lacks equal protection under the law

The bill defines assisted reproduction as causing pregnancy by means other than sexual intercourse, including intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, and sperm injection.

So singles and gays who have babies via sexual intercourse are not committing a crime, but those who have babies any other way are? This one has a one-way ticket to the Supreme Court!

:crazy:
rocknation

[ticapnews]

71. One-way ticket to the Supreme Court

where Roberts, Thomas, Scalia and Miers (or whomever gets selected in her place) are just waiting for it. By the time it reaches the SCOTUS, Stephens will probably be gone, replaced by either this president or the next...

We have to kill these things before they ever become law because for the next generation our federal courts are going to be looking out for the corporations and the Church - not for us.

[efhmc]

5. Sorry, won't work. How are they going to prove it?

Are they going to make the woman ABORT if the pregnancy proves to be suspect??

[sonicx]

8. jailtime?

:shrug:

[AlienGirl]

17. They'll lock the parent(s) up, and take the baby

The baby will be placed with an "approved" family--i.e., a heterosexually-married couple who go to the right kind of church every week and give generously to Republican candidates.

Tucker

[efhmc]

21. Poor baby, destined to be closed minded and pre-programmed to hate.

This will be especially sad for the girl babies.

[I Have A Dream]

69. I have a person where I work who is against a woman's right to...

choose because he and his wife have had difficulty conceiving children, and they had to go to another country to adopt a child. He wants women to be forced breeders so that his own personal desires can be fulfilled.

[AlCzervik]

7. what bullshit, then no more straight couple using those procedures either

imo this will never pass.

[Anywho6]

12. Oh, if it gets on the ballot, it will pass

Believe me. Now it's just a matter of time before Kentucky gets wind and comes up with a similar piece of bigoted legislation. I was born there and spent my first 35 years in the area, so I know how they think. The longer these f**kers are in the WH and Congress and the more these people breed, this kind of narrow-minded, ignorant, hateful crap will be perpetuated and then legislated. It's total empowerment and validation of the stupid. It's sickening and wrong.

[rocktivity]

9. Widows and widowers with children, beware!

...Sen. Patricia Miller (R-Indianapolis)...acknowledged (that) such a law would bar single people from using methods other than sexual intercourse, but said "all the studies indicate the best environment for a child is to have a two-parent family — a mother and a father."

Ken Falk, legal director for the Indiana Civil Liberties Union...said it sets up a clear discrimination that would be difficult to uphold in court..."My question is 'What is the danger that we are legislating against?' Are we saying that only married persons should be able to be parents, which is certainly a slap in the face to many same-sex couples, but also to many who do not have a partner but have undertaken being a parent," Falk said.

What's to stop a single parent from marrying later on in life? Why AREN'T single people who have babies via sexual intercourse criminals, too? Is it impossible for a mother and a father to be good parents if they NEVER marry? And will parents who become single via the death of their partner have to lose custody in the interest of their children continuing to have two parents?

:headbang:
rocknation

[wickerwoman]

22. Well, as long as we're so concerned about creating the best environment

for children why don't we start with poverty, homelessness, underemployment, lack of good daycare for working parents, lack of health insurance, drugs and underfunding of public schooling especially the nutrition programs and P.E.

A child could have three or four parents (and thanks to the divorce rate in this country probably do) and still fail because of all those things. All of those problems are far more immediate than single and gay parents (if we choose to call those problems at all) and are far more clearly under the purview of government.

And let's talk about divorce. Are we going to start taking kids away from their parents if they get divorced? If we really want to kill this bill, let's attach that requirement and watch all the divorced Republican hypocrite cockroaches run for the hills.

As someone who never plans on getting married (even if I meet the right guy) but may one day contemplate having kids through artificial means *when I am financially secure enough to support a child on my own* I think this law is absolute bullshit. A single person in their thirties with a good job they can do at home, a nice house and a solid support network is less qualified to raise a child than a pair of semi-employed 18 year olds living in a trailer who happened to go to a judge and get a marriage certificate that requires no more than a blood test? Insanity!

[Ilsa]

36. Is it possible to nominate a reply? Because yours is the best argument

against this monumental waste of bigoted effort.

[northzax]

66. i'd say the best arguement that will affect people

is pointing out how much it will cost, in taxes, to fight a losing battle in court over this piece of crap legislation.

[David Zephyr]

10. 14th Amendment.

More than controversial. It's unconstitutional.

[Chipper Chat]

11. Thank you Senator Miller

for proving once again that there is more than corn in Indiana. There's the hateful, scummy, and sex-obsessed republican party.

[queerart]

13. No One Should Really Be Suprised........

As sure as I walk, and talk... they will indeed start to control the behavior of Hetrosexuals as well...
(As they have already done so in Ohio)

I'm really not sure what it's going to take for the country to get really scared, and to make a stand.....

These people are Communists, pure and simple........

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&oi=defmore&q=define:communist

(Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system.)

[msongs]

14. so, what religion is this Miller woman did you say? nt

[BiggJawn]

26. Taliborn-Again.

[0007]

15. What's the point? I don't get it!

A stand up comic on Comedy Central said, "If homosexuals don't reproduce how come there are so many of us?"

[AlienGirl]

16. This sets the precedent for "unapproved reproduction" as a legal term

This is scary, because it creates a legal precedent that some reproduction is "approved" and other reproduction is illegal. It isn't hard to imagine that this could eventually be applied to non-assisted pregnancies; those who did not meet reproductive requirements could be criminally charged for having a kid, and the kid could be sent to an "approved" home to be raised.

In other words, this is a piece of the groundwork for a sort of ideological eugenics, in which only people with certain qualifications (heterosexually married, churchgoing, etc.) would be allowed to raise children. :scared:

Tucker

[Lars39]

18. I keep thinking of Newt's orphanages he was touting back then.

Absolutely chilling.

[AlienGirl]

19. Yes--I don't think that idea ever went away

I think the RWers have just been quieter about it.

Tucker

[kestrel91316]

28. Either that, or they will throw out their pro-life stance when it comes to

"unapproved pregnancies", and force those women to have abortions. We all know it's about control.

[LeftyMom]

20. I look shitty in red, too.

-LM, unauthorized breeder

[TheDonkey]

23. why not just round them up in camps, it's more efficient

way to curtail civil rights. Sometimes I wonder how the Republican party can exist.

[thecrow]

54. Hey, they don't want to fund any camps! What are you thinking?

They just want to control reproductive sex in Murka.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Plan Would Limit Reproduction Options For Gays, Singles

This story first broke in DU yesterday (see the links below). It has now made the MSM:

Plan Would Limit Reproduction Options For Gays, Singles

POSTED: 11:10 am EST October 4, 2005
UPDATED: 1:13 pm EST October 4, 2005

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.

Republican state Sen. Patricia Miller said state law should have requirements for assisted reproduction similar to those for adoption. She acknowledged that the legislation would be controversial.

It would require "intended parents" to be married to each other and says an unmarried person may not be an intended parent.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana president Betty Cockrum said the legislation is chilling and represents government intrusion on a person's private life.

The Health Finance Commission will vote Oct. 20 on whether to recommend the legislation to the full General Assembly.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/5055349/detail.html

GLBT Forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x17157

Indiana Forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=151x3281

GD Forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4963321

[BiggJawn]

25. "Aint Gawd GOOD to Indianer?"

If Riley was alive today, he'd say "No."...

Children for MARRIEDS only...

Boy, am I going to give Rep. Miller a piece of my mind tomorrow...I will be an act of CHARITY, since she obviously doesn't have enough brain cells to call her own.

I raised my daughter by myself from Age 12. Any parent out there can tell you how much FUN that probably was.
And now, 10 years later, she's educated, I'm not a grandfather, and she just got a promotion at her job.

Oh, and she's a LIBERAL, too!

They pass this piece of shit, it'll be only a matter of time until the Ayatollahs of the Indiana Taliborn-agains rule that single people can't have children at all, no matter how they were created.

And the ReTHUGlican party still bills itself to its stupid inbred Cargo-Cult constiuency as "The LITTLE Government Paerty"..

Yeah, they're gonna get government off our backs, alright. Off our backs and into our bedrooms and doctor's offices.

I wrote Brandt Hershman a MONTH ago, asking him to explain to me just exactly WHAT he is "protecting" marriage from with the law he introduced last year.

No reply.

[Qanisqineq]

27. What the fuck is wrong with the Indiana legislature?

Jeez. My hoosier husband needs to see this.

[darkism]

29. CULTURE OF LIFE™ !

Hypocrisy at its finest, once again courtesy of the GOP.

[suffragette]

30. This is all about control - control of our bodies, our choices, our lives

And control over what they think society should be.
One with no privacy, no freedom and no options, save ones they sanction.
What hate-filled people and hateful legislation.

[lumpy]

31. Rant

This is the most discrinative, regressive, intrusive measure heard of yet on individual freedoms. My God, who in hell wants yo go back to the 19th century. The so-called fundementalist Christians are a threat to freedoms we have taken for granted. Sorry abouy the poor spelling, but who cares, am so disgusted I can't think straight.

[IndianaGreen]

35. You are right, fundamentalists are a threat to our freedoms

and we must be prepared to deal with them, and turn back the clock to saner times, when the day comes they are driven out of power. We cannot just let things remain the way they were, and we can ill afford to turn back the clock to 2000 and pretend nothing happened.

[eleonora]

32. so singles can't have kids but singles shouldn't abort either...

Aaaaaaargh..I HATE Indiana and I live here. :banghead: :banghead:

[kilaana]

39. You are not alone...

This state is getting more screwed up than ever! I am one pissed-off Hoosier! Fortunately I am surrounded my like-minded people, but I'm still of a mindset to pack my bags and get the hell out of this place!

[eleonora]

72. It's really getting to that point

And they want to attract young workforce..yeah, that sounds like a good plan :sarcasm:

[Sabriel]

33. Where's the bill about doing tests on twins?

That one should be coming next.

[Demeter]

34. Equal Protection, Anyone?

This is so unconstitutional as to make one wonder: what is in the water out there?

[thecrow]

55. ...and if it goes to Supreme Court? Then what?

Will Roberts decide it is a good law that should apply everywhere?

[CatWoman]

37. Indiana Lawmakers Seek to Ban, Control Assisted Impregnation

Oct 5 - A legislative commission in Indiana may recommend the state adopt strict new rules governing medically-assisted reproduction. The proposed legislation would bar unmarried people from having babies except through sexual intercourse and makes doing so – or even attempting to do so – a misdemeanor.

The Indiana Health Finance Commission, a 22-meember interim body composed of lawmakers from both state houses, is set to vote later this month on the measure prohibiting unmarried couples from using "assisted reproduction," a category that includes sperm or egg donation, intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization and sperm infection. The bill would require married couples to obtain state sanction entering into any "gestational agreement." If the commission passes the measure, it would likely go before the entire assembly in the next legislative session.

Indiana Planned Parenthood President and CEO Betty Cockrum told the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that the idea is "chilling," and warned of "governmental intrusion into a very private part of our lives."

Same-sex and unmarried couples, as well as singles, would be legally prevented from using methods other than sexual intercourse to have a family under the legislation. In most cases, Indiana adoption law already prevents singles and homosexuals from adopting children, the Journal Gazette noted.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2445

[kilaana]

40. Write Senator Miller...

You can share your thoughts with Senator Miller by clicking on her name at this link:

http://www.in.gov/legislative/senate_republicans/senator_list.html

[Moderator]

41. kick

[geniph]

42. Dontcha love the Republican policy of "small government"?

What ever happened to that idea, anyway? Big Brother is watching you, so don't you dare take that turkey baster out of the drawer!

[ruggerson]

44. Assisted-reproduction Bill Would Bar Singles and Gays

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/NEWS02/510050438/1006/NEWS01

So now they want to make it a crime for single people and/or gays to have their private doctor help them conceive a child.

The monstrosities of these people grows daily.

And George W Bush is directly responsible for this big government, hate filled, anti-freedom theocratic movement. He has their back.


An interim legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.

Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, said the state does not regulate assisted reproduction but should have requirements similar to its adoption requirements.

Miller is chairwoman of the Health Finance Commission, a panel of lawmakers that will vote Oct. 20 on whether to recommend the legislation to the full General Assembly.

The bill defines assisted reproduction as causing pregnancy by means other than sexual intercourse, including intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, and sperm injection.

[truebrit71]

45. Blatantly unconstitutional, won't stand up...

..but a really good thing to show those of us that have fence-sitters as friends that the republicans have lost their G-D minds...

[IndianaGreen]

46. An attack on GLBT rights is an attack on all of us!

Many Democrats were ashamed and upset with GLBTs during the 2004 Campaign, because they dared demand full rights of citizenship, including the right to marry. Now you get to see the rightwing for what it really is trying to do: impose its definition of "family" on everyone else.

When are liberals going to realize that the cockroaches of the rightwing are really waging war against us, and when are we going to respond in kind?

[ruggerson]

47. This would make an incredible wedge issue for our side

if any Democrats would have the guts to use it.

[msongs]

50. ummm the bush kkkourt will support this do you think??? nt

[Hobarticus]

51. Maybe not...they thought the public would go along with

their intereference in the Schaivo case, and they found out wrong.

People, right and left, don't want the govt. involved in their personal decisions. This could blow up in their faces.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

48. Somebody tell me

this has no chance of passing?

[Jo March]

49. There are so many threads on this - HOORAY!

IndianaGreen and I have been screaming for attention for this issue for the last 2 days.

Glad to see it's getting the scrutiny it deserves.

[asjr]

52. This is a Civil Rights issue. This can't be constitutional.

[HockeyMom]

53. Widows?

Ever hear of couples freezing husband's sperm? I have heard of cases where the wife has had the sperm implanted after the husband has died. In view of the Iraq war, how many do we really know who are doing this now? Would they ban them too? After all, the ONLY good family is one with a biological Mommy and a Daddy.:sarcasm:

I think this bill is a very bad idea all around, but just playing devil's advocate on this one issue.

[thecrow]

56. *gasp* Celine Dion and her husband did freeze embryos

so even if her husband dies, she can still have her child's twin.
What about a case like that?
(I doubt that they live in Indiana though...)

[ruggerson]

63. kick n/t

[HoosierClarkie]

57. It has been dropped!

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3942770


:)

[thinkingwoman]

59. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I tried all afternoon to call my state rep's office (she's a D on the committee) and kept getting voicemail. :eyes: Glad to hear I don't have to start dialing again in the morning.

[HoosierClarkie]

60. I think all the e-mails and calls worked.

Duer's Rock. :)

[Polethebear]

61. Now that's the power of democracy!!!!!

high fives for everboddy:D

[IndianaGreen]

62. Congratulations to all DUers, Dailykos, et al posters and bloggers

Congratulations to all DUers, Dailykos, et al posters and bloggers for the tremendous effort they put out to bring to light what would have been an obscure committe vote.

I am sure the cockroaches will try again some other time, but not this time.

This shows once again that GLBT rights and women's rights must be defended by all of us. To deny one basic rights to one group of people is to deny them to all of us!

[Betty]

65. I see that part of the proposal

was to run background checks which incldued looking into the prospective parents' church related activities, so I think this was aimed at more than just gays and lesbians and singles... incredible fascists.

[IndianaGreen]

67. I hated seeing that "faith-based" in the draft bill

This bill, although now temporarily dead, shows the true colors of the rightwing, to them the only real family are a devoutly Christian version of the Cleavers, of "Leave It to Beaver".

As to the sponsor of the bill, Patricia Miller, Someone posted this about her at Dailykos:

(Patricia Miller) is executive director of the Confessing Movement in the United Methodist Church, a conservative movement within the church whose predominant issue seems to be trying to make the UMC anti-gay.

[bluedawg12]

70. Not even ashamed of being totalitarian

in their philosophy- now the rightwingnuts want to tell women when they can have children, with whom, and that they have to attend church or a synagogue or masque...

Is this next??

eugenics >plural noun the science of using controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics in a population

Boycott Vera Bradley bags and luggage!! Repug Patricia Miller the nurse, author, of this bill, is the CEO of the hand bag company. I wonder if they would use the skin from....naw,...too awful...uh..well, maybe too soon....but just wait they will come up with a final solution for those pesky gays.

Here is the website for the Confessing Movement:
http://www.confessingchurch.homestead.com/

[Jo March]

68. Amen! I'm glad that we could squash a few bugs!

I am always amazed at what they try to slip by us when they think that we are not watching!!

They are roaches and they scampered at the first sign of light.

DUers rock: :yourock:

:bounce: :bounce: :applause: :applause: :woohoo: :woohoo: