Posted: 10/28/11 13:35
by Dave Mindeman
OK, I'm going to wade into the weeds here and talk about the Mississippi "Personhood" amendment:
A ballot measure going before voters in Mississippi on Nov. 8 would define the term ?person? in the State Constitution to include fertilized human eggs and grant to fertilized eggs the legal rights and protections that apply to people.
One of the problems with the anti-choice crowd is that they look at the birth of a baby as a backtracking trail of viability. They believe that if a baby is a life, then all the various stages leading up to the birth are a life as well. Fetus, zygote, fertilized egg. All life. Pretty soon we will be naming sperm and the glint in your eye.
I almost wish the Mississippi amendment would pass. I know that sounds strange for a progressive liberal to say, but I believe that the Mississippi legislation would finally create the massive revolt against this type of thinking that is simmering under the surface.
Women have invested too much in reproductive choice to let it whither away. We all have a measure of discomfort with abortion but backtracking to take away all reproductive decisions leading up to birth, is going to be unacceptable.
The crux of the problem with the Mississippi amendment is that it deals with fertilization. And that moves directly into birth control and family planning. Private choices and contradictions to science.
Fertilized eggs are not "persons". I think the vast majority of people would accept that. Even the idea that a fertilized egg is a "potential" person is a scientific stretch of exponential magnitude. If fertilized eggs are actual persons then the in vitro fertilization process would have to be banned. The process of in vitro produces way more fertilized eggs than are needed because the hope is that the odds of implantation is increased by the numbers. If the Mississippi amendment is in place, then in vitro clinics are guilty of murder....mass murder.
Evangelical Christians keep moving the goal posts on reproduction in America. But I will tell you this, if the grip on reproductive rights tighten to the extent of the Mississippi law, the vast majority of American women will say ENOUGH.
Birth control is an accepted practice. It is a necessary practice. Women could not have made the progress in equality that they have without it. To move backwards is unthinkable. And to extend life to a fertilized egg is ignoring some basic scientific principle about who and what we are.
We are unique in the universe because we can think. The Mississippi amendment not only stops reproductive rights, it stops rational thought.
