Meet the Man Behind Utah's New Law Criminalizing Miscarriages

Utah Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer doesn't hide the fact that he's working to overturn Roe v. Wade.

As Chair of the Utah Family Action Council Team, Rep. Wimmer's Web site says the legislation he's introduced or sponsored over the past few years, including the Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act, which requires doctors to inform pregnant women and girls that their fetus may experience pain during abortions, "chips away at the nation's abortion laws. We are continually working to pass pro-life legislation which will weaken Roe v. Wade."

Rep. Wimmer's latest piece of legislation, the Criminal Homicide and Abortion Revisions, which charges women and girls with murder for having miscarriages caused by an "intentional or knowing act," was signed into law this week by Utah Governor Gary Herbert. The original bill would have also included "reckless" behavior, but Rep. Wimmer removed that word to guarantee the governor's signature.

Rep. Wimmer, a former police officer, introduced the miscarriage bill after a 17-year-old from Vernal, Utah, who was seven months pregnant, paid a man $150 to beat her up after her boyfriend threatened to leave her if she didn't terminate the pregnancy. Juvenile Court Judge Larry Steele ordered her to be placed in the custody of Utah Juvenile Justice Services until she turned 21, but she was released after the judge said that under state law, "a woman who solicits or seeks to have another cause an abortion of her own unborn child cannot be criminally liable."

Rep. Wimmer is now working on what he calls "a piece of model legislation" for additional states to adopt.

In addition to chairing the Utah Family Action Council Team, Rep. Wimmer is co-founder of the Patrick Henry Caucus, an organization whose mission is to "restore and uphold the sovereignty and rights of the individual States as guaranteed by the tenth amendment of the United States Constitution." Last December, the group adopted a unanimous position "to oppose the Health Care Reform Bills, and to support a lawsuit against the federal government in order to stop the national health care bill from becoming law."

AlterNet contributor Rose Aguilar recently spoke to Rep. Wimmer about his law and its ramifications. In three wide-ranging phone conversations, they discussed how the law will be applied, the state of sex education in Utah and Rep. Wimmer's long-term agenda.

Rose Aguilar: Why did you remove the word 'reckless' from the bill?

Rep. Carl Wimmer: Clearly the rumors and what I believe are false statements had spread so far and wide. In fact, I was just on a radio show in Ohio; we're all over the country with this thing. I'm a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and it was my intention to take this bill and present it there as a piece of model legislation that other states can adopt. They're not going to adopt something that has so much rumor and controversy surrounding it, so I'm taking "reckless" out of the bill. I'll address that later in the year. For now, we'll keep "intentional" or "knowingly."

RA: What scenarios would fall under this law?

CW: The situation that happened in Vernal. There was a horrific case where a woman used a very, very thick sharp implementation to stab her stomach to kill the child. That would be covered. The intentional killing of the unborn child is what would be covered.

RA: What about a woman who falls down the stairs? What about a woman whose abusive partner hits her? What about a drug addict?

CW: I don't think they would have been covered in the original bill. It was a fear tactic spread by those who opposed the bill no matter what.

RA: Would a cocaine addict who lost her child be prosecuted under this law?