New Mexico Legislator's Rape and Abortion Bill Often lost in the never-ending national argument over abortion is what a ban on the medical procedure would actually entail, what penalties would actually apply to scofflaws. But State Rep. Cathrynn Brown of New Mexico is bringing such pesky practical issues into the limelight. Last week, she introduced a bill that, read literally, would make it a third-degree felony for women to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape - by classifying such abortions as "tampering with evidence." Here's the exact phrasing: "Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain abortion, of a fetus that is the result or criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime." Complicating the debate over whether a fetus is a "person," Ms. Brown offers a third possibility: A fetus is "evidence." A rape victim would have to carry her fetus to term, lest she impede the criminal investigation into her own rape. After a totally predictable outcry, Ms. Brown reworked her bill to exempt victims from prosecution, and insisted she never even meant it to apply to victims, only to whoever committed rape or incest. The latest version is a garbled mess: Tampering with evidence shall include a person committing criminal sexual penetration or incest procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of the person's act of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime. In no circumstance shall the mother of the fetus be charged under this subsection. Scott Forrester, the executive director of the New Mexico Democratic Party, said on Friday that since the bill still makes it a crime to "facilitate" an abortion in cases of rape or incest, it "leaves the door open" for criminal prosecution of "doctors, nurses, or anyone else who works at a health care clinic where this is one of the services provided." It also continues to classify a fetus as "evidence." If Roe were overturned, and states banned abortion in some or all circumstances, state legislatures would inevitably pass bills similar to Ms. Brown's. Legions of otherwise law-abiding women, doctors and nurses would enter the maw of the criminal justice system.