Legislated Sadism, or, A Bill as a Miscarriage of Justice

There are many words to describe various bills that are currently making their way through our legislature in Trenton. Some are “progressive,” in that they increase funds for public institutions in need, like libraries. Some may be deemed “unwise” or “short sighted,” like the one proposing a constitutional amendment that would require a legislative supermajority of 3/5 in each house to raise any tax. But once a session – perhaps twice – we might be justified in using the word “sadistic.”

Sadism. What does it mean? It’s a term that gets tossed around in a lot of arguments, political and otherwise. According to Merriam-Webster’s website, the term is defined as:

“…enjoyment that someone gets from being violent or cruel or from causing pain.”

To act sadistically is to willingly cause distress and agony while at the same time apparently deriving some sense of satisfaction, or dare I say, even pleasure from it.

Yes, we have a bill for that. It’s titled A140, and has been introduced by Assembly members Parker Space and Alison Littell McHose. In all of my time of examining 400 years of proposed and passed legislation – it’s right up there with any of the most regressive Jim Crow laws of the White Supremacist South. It even compares notably in its cruelty with the decisions of those judges at Salem, Massachusetts, who sent, in the name of justice and sound public policy, innocent women to death to hang as witches in the late 1600’s.

Bill A140 has no catchy name. It’s honestly straightforward in its starkness. In short, it describes itself as the following:

“Requires women incarcerated in county correctional facilities to cover the full cost of an abortion.”

Now before I begin to speculate on the sadistic nature of this proposed law, I need make something clear. After reading the bill a few times, I’m not sure if the bill, once approved, would immediately require imprisoned women to pay for their own abortions, or if a county would have to pass an ordinance specifically tailored to its own jurisdiction. As the sentiment of the bill is, as I’ve previously mentioned, sadist, in some ways these specifics really do not matter. But there, at least I pointed it out.

So let’s examine this bill from a practical perspective. There is apparently enough of a public policy crisis here in New Jersey, in that we have a population of poor women who wind up behind bars and suddenly need abortions. These women are seemingly such a menace to society, they are such a drain on public resources, that if they find themselves pregnant in jail – regardless of how they got into such a condition – they must, due to their own poverty, bring the pregnancy to term. Whether they wind up pregnant due to a one-night stand, or if they’re raped, or engage in some illegal semi-consensual affair with correctional officials are no matter. Oh, and by the way, there are many examples in the recent past where correctional officials have impregnated female inmates…but I’m getting ahead of myself here…

Moving on. So, according to the logic behind the bill, it is in the interest of the public to have such women in a pregnant condition behind bars, though not wanting to be pregnant. Of course, some of these women could simply be waiting to go to trial, and could be entirely innocent of whatever they’re accused of, but no matter. They must be forced to remain pregnant. I guess this is the state’s message to incarcerated women who are, of course, poor and mostly minority, to endure an unwanted pregnancy, a truly depressing and demoralizing condition, in perhaps the most depressing and demoralizing setting anywhere, that being, captivity.

Okay, by any stretch of the imagination…by anyone’s opinion…that’s just sick. What is the end goal here? To have such a woman commit suicide? To drive her insane? To place an additional punishment on her for being poor and either sexually active or a rape victim? Again, it’s twisted, and it just another step in the continual war of the far-right to control the reproductive rights of women. But again, it’s sick too. Just crazy, mean, sick stuff.

Alright, now that I got that off my chest, in an effort to make this proposed legislation more effective towards its ultimate point – of punitively forcing a poor woman to endure an unwanted pregnancy behind bars – I say let’s not do it half-heartedly. Let’s really stick it to her. I propose amending the bill to include placing such women in solitary confinement for half of the day, and then setting them to hard labor for the other half. In addition, we’ll put wording into the bill stipulating that such horrendous women be fed nothing but warm water and stale bread. And one more thing…we’ll have a drill sergeant scream and yell at them whenever they, with their growing bellies, require rest. Now we can really make our point as a righteous state! Take that poor (probably Black or Latino) pregnant, jailed women! You thought you could cause trouble and have people pay your way? You thought you could simply walk into that pharmacy and take those chips, that Starbucks bottled coffee and that container of generic Tylenol without paying? Never! Now you’ll really feel our righteous rage! Work women, work and sweat and know how so very foolish you are…and how extremely furious you’ve made us solvent, self-supporting citizens!

See what I mean?

How about we do this…we, as a compassionate state and law-abiding society...obey the Bill of Rights. How about we refuse to consider a bill that, as law, is clearly designed to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on our female inmates. Why don’t we act like human beings, and not like wicked, greedy, malevolent characters from a Charles Dickens novel?

Now that’s a compelling thought.