Liberal Forum

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a law this year that mandated funerals for fetuses.

It’s no secret that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s reported pick for the Republican vice presidential nomination, opposes abortion rights.

But this year he signed an anti-abortion bill that even some pro-life Republicans thought was too extreme, and which was blocked from going into effect late last month by a federal judge because it violated women’s right to choose.

The law did something truly bizarre.

It would have basically forced women to seek funerary services for a fetus — whether she’d had an abortion or a miscarriage, and no matter how far along the pregnancy was.

The law Pence backed would have required all fetal tissue to be cremated or buried, an unprecedented measure in state law.

The law also banned abortion if the fetus had a "disability" like Down syndrome, which would have also denied women the right to end a pregnancy in the event of more serious fetal anomalies.

The wording of the burial provision meant that technically, even if a woman had a miscarriage at eight weeks of pregnancy at home, she would have to keep the blood and tissue, take it to a

hospital, and have it buried or cremated by a funeral home.