Did I hear this right? Gestational Certificates???

A few days ago, I woke up to NPR telling me that Republicans in Indiana are drafting legislation requiring that a woman hoping to become a mother with fertility assistance apply to the court for a permit. It's apparently called a "petition for parentage", which results in a "gestational certificate". And... you have to be married to get one. Is this the stuff of bad fantasy fiction or what?

And wait, it gets better. If a woman seeks to become pregnant without getting the gestational certificate, then she's guilty of "unauthorized reproduction, a Class B misdemeanour."

And this makes sense to.... whom? The Onion is going to have a field day with this one. It almost feels like there's no need to satirize this or point out the obvious ethical and logical flaws -to say nothing of their tin ear for language. I mean, really. Gestational certificate?

But the thing is, it's real. The question we should be asking isn't "Are babies better off in two-parent (clearly different sex, heterosexual, married parents -doesn't that have to be the subtext here?) families?". We don't know. The research is all over the place, in spite of the sponsoring Senator's claims to the contrary. It seems to me that the question is "Whose power is enhanced and whose is reduced?".

This legislation isn't about protecting babies. If it were, they'd be doing something about the fact that poor women who rely on state-funded health care (and therefore don't have reliable access to reproductive health services) get pregnant when they don't want to be. They'd be addressing access to prenatal and neonatal care, and child-care, and the state of the schools. Where's the legislation about those things?

No, it's much more important to be sure that a woman has a man in her life. It's so important we have to legislate it. And it's really important that parents be married, which is to say, heterosexual, since gay couples can't marry in Indiana. Yeah, we'd better get legislation going about that pretty quick.

Once again, I am MORTIFIED by the allegedly pro-life movement.

You can read the drafted legislation here: Unauthorized Reproduction. It's a pdf file. The Indiana legislature plans to vote on October 20. The consensus in the Indiana press (that I read) seems to be that the bill is unlikely to pass. Cross all your fingers and toes.