I just stumbled upon a news story about a new Pennsylvania law that makes it a crime for someone to touch a pregnant woman’s belly without her consent.  I would think (hope?) common decency would stop people from touching a woman’s body without her permission, but now a man in Pennsylvania is facing harassment charges because he helped himself to a baby belly.

While I think a law seems a bit extreme, I can certainly appreciate the emotion behind a law like this.  For many women, a stranger or relative touching her can trigger memories of terrible past experiences. For me, it can be hard enough having my changing body on display for the world to see, so when a person – stranger or not – invades my personal space I can’t help but think “eeeewwwwweee.”  Even though I know most people feel a sense of awe and wonder when they see a pregnant woman, I’ve always felt that my female relatives and close friends are the only people allowed to touch my baby bump without asking.

Apparently we’ve come to the point where laws are required to enforce basic civil decency, but the bottom line is this: if you wouldn’t pat a woman’s tummy when she’s not pregnant, don’t pat it if she is!  It’s her baby and her body, after all!