Thread: Pregnancy before conception - What are they smoking?

The Arizona legislature has just passed a bill that declares pregnancy begins before conception. What are these people smoking?

AZ Legislature Passes ‘Pregnancy Begins 2 Weeks Before Conception’ Bill | The New Civil Rights Movement

I don't really understand this. This is already how doctors calculate gestational age, but what is the point of writing it into law?

Originally Posted by choiceone

The Arizona legislature has just passed a bill that declares pregnancy begins before conception. What are these people smoking?

AZ Legislature Passes ‘Pregnancy Begins 2 Weeks Before Conception’ Bill | The New Civil Rights Movement

Because these pro-lifers are extremists who do not care about reality. Next there will be a law forbidding men to masturbate because it wastes precious semen and semen is 1/2 of a possible child so you are half guilty of infanticide or pre-pregnancy masturbation murder of your own future children.

Originally Posted by kerussll

I don't really understand this. This is already how doctors calculate gestational age, but what is the point of writing it into law?

From what I gather, doctors use this approach to estimate gestational age, from the first day of the last menstrual period, but not in determining length of pregnancy, which is based on conception. Laws that specify a woman cannot have an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy mean according to weeks of pregnancy, so that this bill is just claiming that weeks of gestational age = weeks of pregnancy.

However, the law could conceivably have other repercussions, since it would technically be possible to claim that a menstruating woman had had an early miscarriage of suspicious nature even though she had never gotten pregnant. I started this thread hoping we could all try to find out what the repercussions and purposes of the law could be. It really screams "Let's control women." See Arizona HB 2036.

Originally Posted by choiceone

From what I gather, doctors use this approach to estimate gestational age, from the first day of the last menstrual period, but not in determining length of pregnancy, which is based on conception. Laws that specify a woman cannot have an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy mean according to weeks of pregnancy, so that this bill is just claiming that weeks of gestational age = weeks of pregnancy.

However, the law could conceivably have other repercussions, since it would technically be possible to claim that a menstruating woman had had an early miscarriage of suspicious nature even though she had never gotten pregnant. I started this thread hoping we could all try to find out what the repercussions and purposes of the law could be. It really screams "Let's control women." See Arizona HB 2036.

Oh i have no doubt the goal of this bill is to control women. I just didn't understand there was a difference between gestational age and length of pregnancy. That still doesn't quite make sense to me, but oh well..

I work with newborns and I always chuckle a bit when I hear something like "we've got a 33 and 3/7th weeker coming" Unless the woman had IVF, there is just no way to know an exact age like that. We use women's last menstrual periods as a best marker but periods are by no means regular in all women or an exact indicator of the date she was ovulating. Every time I go to the doctor for a physical, they ask me the date of my last period. I am always stumped by that question. Maybe some women walk around knowing at all times when their last period was, but I certainly don't. If i were to discover I were pregnant today I could only guess the length of my pregnancy plus or minus about 2 weeks. If I wanted an abortion, and needed some extra time all I would have to do would be to push the date I say my last period was forward a bit.

All of this is just a reason why it is stupid to have a legal cutoff for abortions. It should be between the woman and her doctor. Whatever they decide is best, should be done.

Originally Posted by choiceone

The Arizona legislature has just passed a bill that declares pregnancy begins before conception. What are these people smoking?

AZ Legislature Passes ‘Pregnancy Begins 2 Weeks Before Conception’ Bill | The New Civil Rights Movement

Why do people post threads about laws without linking to the law itself? Why are you always trying to hide the facts?

Sourcing the huffingandpuffington post doesn't help you, either.

Originally Posted by choiceone

The Arizona legislature has just passed a bill that declares pregnancy begins before conception. What are these people smoking?

AZ Legislature Passes ‘Pregnancy Begins 2 Weeks Before Conception’ Bill | The New Civil Rights Movement

Here's one of them. You're welcome.

SB1359 - 502R - S Ver

Here's the 2nd one. You're welcome, again.

http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/2r/bills/hb2036s.pdf

If you give a **** about your own thread then you can find the 3rd one for yourself and re-post your OP properly; links, quotes, reference material for your argument, etc.

Originally Posted by Jerry

Here's the 2nd one. You're welcome, again.

http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/2r/bills/hb2036s.pdf

If you give a **** about your own thread then you can find the 3rd one for yourself and re-post your OP properly; links, quotes, reference material for your argument, etc.

jerry, tell us what those laws express which is different from what has been posted in this thread

Originally Posted by justabubba

jerry, tell us what those laws express which is different from what has been posted in this thread

The definition of 'gestational age' did not change. In determining the gestational age to certify the ZEF is under the 20 week cut-off, that age has been and is still " calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman".

See also: "Probable gestational age" means the gestational age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is planned to be performed and as determined with reasonable probability by the attending physician."

OP hasn't established where this '2-week' number even comes from.