Sherry Chandler

I thought Kentucky was retro. Via I See Invisible People and Have Coffee, Will Write, a look at HB 287 that’s up for vote in the Ohio State Legislature:

B)(1) When the fetus that is the subject of the procedure is viable, no person shall perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman without the written informed consent of the father of the fetus.

(2) When the fetus that is the subject of the procedure is not viable, no person shall perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman without the written informed consent of the father of the fetus.

(C)(1) A pregnant woman seeking to abort her pregnancy shall provide, in writing, the identity of the father of the fetus to the person who is to perform or induce the abortion.

(2) No pregnant woman seeking to abort her pregnancy shall fail to comply with division (B)(1) of this section.

(3) No pregnant woman seeking to abort her pregnancy shall provide to the person who is to perform or induce the abortion the identity of a man as the father of the fetus if the man is not the father of the fetus.

(D) No man shall give a consent pursuant to division (B)(1) or (2) of this section as the father of the fetus if the man knows that he is not the father of the fetus.

(E) No person shall cause a man to believe that the man is the father of a fetus for the purpose of obtaining the consent required by division (B)(1) or (2) of this section, if the person knows that the man is not the father of the fetus.

(F) If, pursuant to division (C)(1) of this section, the pregnant woman identifies two or more men as possible fathers of the fetus, the person who is to perform or induce the abortion shall perform a paternity test, or cause a paternity test to be performed, to determine the father of the fetus prior to accepting any consent required under division (B)(1) or (2) of this section and prior to performing or inducing an abortion of the pregnant woman’s pregnancy. No person shall perform or induce an abortion in violation of this division.

This kind of thing is just wrong.

But it’s likely to stand up in the wonderful Roberts Supreme Court. After all, the bill provides exceptions for rape, incest, and threat to the life of the mother. However, as Terry points out:

A woman can’t get an abortion made necessary by rape or incest without a police report. Should the police decide you don’t have a good case, they can refuse to write a report. Tough luck if they don’t believe you.

Click through to Have Coffee, Will Write for a look at the 8 men and 1 women who are perpetrating this outrage. I don’t think I’d buy a used car from any of them.

The woman who ran out of the front door of Stonington just as Jury stopped his car in the circular drive was carrying something wrapped up in a blanket. As he crunched up the gravel toward her, she called to him, “Would you please go with me to the vet’s? I can’t drive and carry the cat, too.”

Drooping out of one end of the blanket was a black, wedge-shaped face, a tiny ribbon of blood matting the fur between nose and mouth.

“Sure, only let’s use my car. You hold the cat and I’ll drive.”

She was silent as he held the door for her. He backed up and started down the long gravel drive, passing a squat gatehouse on his right. When they got to the Horndean Road, he said, “Which way?”

“Left. Toward Horndean.” She turned her head then to look out of her window, cutting off conversation. A square of paisley lawn tied at the base of her neck held back her oak-colored hair. He knew Lady Kennington had few servants — just a gardener and a cook. This was certainly neither, so it must be the lady herself. Jury was disoriented. He had got a picture firmly fixed in his mind of an imperious, elderly woman, perhaps thin and gray-haired, wearing a dress of lavender silk adorned with a cameo. The reality was substantially different.

“What’s the matter with the cat?”

“I don’t know. I think it was hit by a car, but I don’t know. I saw it running up the drive an hour ago and didn’t think anything was wrong.” She looked out her window, rather than at Jury, as she said this.

He turned to peer at the cat, which looked back, glassy-eyed, and made a sort of weak sound, as if it and Jury shared some secret knowledge of what happens to cats in this condition. The speculations of the woman beside him were probably just as sad.

—Martha Grimes, The Anodyne Necklace (Thorndyke Press, 1983)