The latest legislative insanity comes from HR 1677, sponsored by Delegate John Cosgrove (R-78). The latest judicial insanity comes from Bastine: Apparently, pregnant women can't get divorced in Washington. Shawnna Hughes had hoped to divorce her abuse husband by Christmas of 2004, but when the Judge Bastine found out she was pregnant, he gave her lawyers (from the Center for Justice) "one week to come up with arguments for why he shouldn't revoke the divorce he had just granted Hughes".
The Legislative Insanity
Regarding HR 1677
So, consider the following scenario, for which I would like to thank a good friend of mine from LiveJouranal Libertarianism:
You are at home alone at 8:00 on a Friday night. You are 8 weeks pregnant. All of a sudden, you begin to experience heavy cramping and bleeding. You realize with shock and sadness that you are probably experiencing a miscarriage. You are overwhelmed with grief and surprised by the intensity of physical pain involved. When your partner comes home, you break the sad news to him. Over the next few hours, you suffer pain, cramping, and intermittent bleeding. Exhausted, you finally fall asleep in your partner's arms around 4 AM. You sleep until noon.
Guess what? You just earned yourself up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. Why? Because you failed to call the cops and report your miscarriage within 12 hours.
Apparently, Cosgrove wants the State to throw grieving mothers in jail for having the nerve to prioritize their personal grief and family over the State. Hopefully, this horrid piece of legislation can be defeated.
The Judicial Insanity
Shawnna Hughes wanted to divorce her abusive husband (Carlos) by Christmas, 2004. Instead, Judge Bastine, upon finding out she was pregnant, gave her one week to come up with a reason for why he shouldn't revoke the divorce he had just granted. Due to a bunch of kooky considerations regarding the baby's legal father, the judge revoked the divorce. So, apparently, women don't have the right to freedom of association, since if they get pregnant, they can't leave abusive husbands. This has horrible implications, in that an abusive husband can simply get his wife pregnant to prevent divorce.
The husband Ms. Hughes was trying to divorce, by the way, started out his abusive streak by telling her that she couldn't associate with any of her friends, who he called "whores". He then decided that the best time to start abusing her was when he got her pregnant the first time. His idea of a good time was strangling and knocking her down. The first time, he ripped the rear-view mirror from her car, and started strangling her while she was driving, with her stepchildren in the back seats. After she got pregnant the second time, he decided to slam her against a towel-rack in their bathroom hard enough to break it, and smash his forehead into her nose. Then, picking up his son, he pinned her on the ground by pressing his knee to her throat. Ms. Hughes finally decided to end the marriage in 2003 when her older son found her husband strangling her in their bedroom.
This is the kind of guy that the good judge thinks it's ok to force Ms. Hughes to stay married to. By the way, under our great penal system, Carlos got 1 day in jail for these numerous crimes.
