A New Mexico Lawmaker Wants To Criminalize Post-Rape Abortions

A Republican legislator in New Mexico is seeking to force pregnant rape victims to carry the pregnancy to term, claiming the fetus could be used as "evidence" at trial.

Rep. Cathrynn Brown's bill would charge a rape victim who sought an abortion with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence," The Huffington Post reported Wednesday.

"Tampering with evidence consists of destroying, changing, hiding, placing or fabricating any physical evidence with intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of any person or to throw suspicion of the commission of a crime upon another," House Bill 206 reads.

"Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," it adds.

And while the bill is unlikely to survive the Democrat-controlled state legislature according to HuffPost, it has enraged activists all the same.

"The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” ProgressNow New Mexico member Pat Davis told HuffPost. “According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case.“

Brown, who brags about being endorsed by Right to Life on her website, has yet to respond to Business Insider's request for more information about her bill.

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