Kentucky Victory for Individual Liberty

I can't wait to hear Rand Paul praise this ruling in favor of individual liberty:

Women can not be criminally charged for abusing alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case that has generated national attention.

In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that the state’s Maternal Health Act of 1992 expressly precludes women from being charged with crimes if they ingest drugs or alcohol during pregnancy.

At issue is whether police and prosecutors were correct in charging Ina Cochran with first-degree wanton endangerment after she gave birth to a child who tested positive for cocaine in 2005.

Cochran’s lawyer moved to have the charges dismissed and a Casey Circuit Court judge agreed. Prosecutors appealed to the state Court of Appeals, which ruled that the charges should be allowed under Kentucky law.

Lawyers for Cochran had argued that the General Assembly also made it clear in 2004 that women should not be prosecuted for harming their unborn children.

That year, lawmakers passed a fetal homicide statute, which allowed prosecution of a third party for killing an unborn child. In the bill, lawmakers said a pregnant woman could not be charged with harming her unborn child.

The court, in its opinion, wrote that it was clear that the legislature never intended pregnant women to be charged. “It is the legislature, not the judiciary, that has the power to designate what is a crime,” the opinion said.

Yep, Dr. "Get Big Government Off Our Backs" Paul should be releasing a statement any minute now.

Aaaaaaaaany minute now.

No, Paul's concern for individual liberty and bodily integrity applies only to male people. In this, as in everything else, he is a wingnut freakazoid repug no different from Mitch McConnell.

And of course the legislation cited by the Kentucky Supreme Court is itself a severe restriction on the individual rights of women. By making "harm to a fetus" by a third party a crime, it not only criminalizes all abortion, it specifically elevates the rights of a body part over the rights of an adult human being.

It's part of a national pattern, as Digby explains:

The forced pregnancy forces have been painstakingly working at persuading the public and changing the laws over a long period of time. And it's working.

Women are screwed if liberals don't wake up to this and formulate a plan for combating it. Giving birth isn't just another "responsibility" like paying your taxes or buying car insurance. To just let these people have their way without a real fight is criminal.

From alternet, The Sneaky, Unexpected Ways Anti-Choice Right-Wingers Are Chipping Away at Women's Rights:

Since Roe v. Wade passed, anti-choice groups have been waging a war on abortion rights. This year it's been even worse.

The Supreme Court determined in Roe v. Wade that abortion is a fundamental right, which means that access to abortion should have the same protections throughout our country and not vary based on where a woman lives. Yet in a subsequent 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court upheld several state restrictions on abortion, finding that they did not impose an “undue burden” on a woman’s decision to have an abortion.

From that point on, antiabortion advocates have fought hard to restrict abortion at the state level in any way they can. They introduce literally hundreds of state bills across the country each year aimed at limiting access to abortion and testing the limits of Roe. And each year they succeed in enacting a handful of those bills. Some 600 such laws have passed since 1995.

Read the whole thing.