According to news reports, an incredibly obtuse Republican lawmaker in New Mexico has introduced a bill legally requiring rape victims to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.

House Bill 206, is the brain child of state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), and would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for “tampering with evidence.”

“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,” the bill says, and third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

The bill’s unlikely to pass though since Democrats have a majority in both chambers of New Mexico’s state legislature.

Brown claims she introduced the bill with the goal of punishing the person who commits incest or rape and then obtains or facilitates an abortion to destroy the evidence of the crime.

Really, the baby’s going to be the only evidence of the rape? How about a rape kit used collect DNA evidence? Are you really this ignorant? Are you this arrogant?

“New Mexico needs to strengthen its laws to deter sex offenders,” said Brown. “By adding this law in New Mexico, we can help to protect women across our state.”

Wow, Republican Tea Party (GOTP) types have used tortured logic before in order to inflict additional harm upon rape victims – enforced vaginal probes, trying to define “legitimate” rape as well as claiming a woman’s body can prevent a pregnancy if she’s raped – but none has gone this far. Brown appears to be another unthinking right-wing zealot who will do whatever she can to impose her views; she serves as a member of the board of Carlsbad’s Right to Life chapter, and she’s also fond of posting pictures to her Facebook page from the Life’s Issues Institute such as the following:

Brown’s now attempting to backtrack claiming the bill, as introduced, was a misprint. Wanting to charge a rape victim with a third degree felony if she gets an abortion isn’t misprinting Representative, it’s a deliberate attempt to force your myopic Christianity upon everyone else. Thank God the Constitution provides for a separation of Church and State to protect my daughters and granddaughters, my nieces and friends from the likes of good god-fearing Christians like you.