Mississippi Personhood Amendment

[khlib]

Next Tuesday, Mississippi voters will vote on a constitutional amendment, ballot question 26, to define life as beginning at the point of fertilization—a move that would make all abortion illegal, even in cases of rape. It would also ban many kinds of birth control (a spokesman for the Yes on 26 campaign calls the morning-after-pill a "human pesticide") and make in-vitro fertilization exceedingly difficult. Despite all of that, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor and attorney general have endorsed the measure, as have Mike Huckabee and Deanna Favre (wife of Brett).

If this initiative passes, and fertilized eggs on their own have full legal rights, anything that could potentially block that implantation—something a woman's body does naturally all the time—could be considered murder. Scientists say hormonal birth-control pills and the morning-after pill work primarily by preventing fertilization in the first place, but the outside possibility, never documented, that an egg could be fertilized anyway and blocked is enough for some pro-lifers. Indeed, at least one pro-Personhood doctor in Mississippi, Beverly McMillan, refused to prescribe the pill before retiring last year, writing, "I painfully agree that birth control pills do in fact cause abortions."

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/mississippi-personhood-birth-control-abortion

[khlib]

Mississippi is redefining the traditional definition of a person! blasphemy!

[The Jay]

That is messed up, but there is one upside: it will cause corporate personhood problems in Mississippi, I think.

[Ocean Seal]

Hmm, I don't even understand the rationale for so extreme a law. Even in the Bible's most ancient text it can be inferred that the fetus isn't actually alive until the 18th day. That being said its still a silly reason to make women suffer simply because of what someone has read into the Bible.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

I thought Mississippi was turning around when they decriminalized small amounts of weed.

This is a disgusting violation of women's rights

[Sasha]

9eMf1ermDZ8

[Ocean Seal]

If abortion is murder, masturbation is genocide.

[Sasha]

Straight Rights Watch: Mississippi Votes Today on "Personhood Amendment" (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/11/08/straight-rights-watch-mississippi-votes-today-on-personhood-amendment)

Posted by Dan Savage (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/dan-savage/Author?oid=259) on Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 9:29 AM

Mississippi will vote on a "personhood amendment" to their state constitution today, an amendment that would make all fertilized eggs to be "persons" under the law, with the same legal rights as all other persons—except, of course, full-grown-woman persons, who would be legally required to provide free room and board to fetus persons against their full-grown-woman-person wills. Mississippi's amendment would criminalize certain forms of birth control and transform a miscarriage into a potential felony. Says Atrios (http://www.eschatonblog.com/2011/11/fetus-police.html):

I do my best to not wish harm on people, but I hope it's the supporters of the Mississippi "personhood" amendment who find themselves navigating a legal nightmare when it's their or their spouse's ectopic pregnancy, or when Officer Friendly declares their bathroom a crime scene due to a miscarriage.
Sullivan (http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/11/when-does-personhood-start.html) links to a rare bit of antisexrightwingbullshitcalling (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282281/re-pro-science-conservatives-and-mississippi-personhood-amendment-robert-verbruggen) at National Review:

As Reason’s Ronald Bailey has pointed out (http://reason.com/archives/2004/12/22/is-heaven-populated-chiefly-by), 60 to 80 percent of human embryos—post-conception, with distinct DNA—are naturally destroyed by the woman’s body. Are we to see this as a large-scale massacre of human beings, develop drugs to prevent it from happening, and require all women who have unprotected sex to take them? Certainly, we would be willing to take measures like this if post-birth infants were dying in comparable numbers.
Social conservatives: committed to shrinking the size of government... until it's small enough to fit in your vagina.

Permalink (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/11/08/straight-rights-watch-mississippi-votes-today-on-personhood-amendment) | Post Comments (26) (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Comments?oid=10645015&category=slog)

[socialistjustin]

If this passes then it could go all the way to the Roberts Court. We could see the overturning of Roe V Wade. You know this law is extreme when even guys like Haley Barbour are worried about the wording, of course he has voted for it though.

[MattShizzle]

The whole anti-abortion movement isn't "pro-life" as most of it's members are pro-death penalty and against any sort of social safety net for women with born children. It's anti-woman and demanding the punishment of having a baby for any woman who dares have sex.

[Veovis]

If abortion is murder, masturbation is genocide.

And miscarriage is manslaughter. Watch out, ladies!

[MattShizzle]

I've been banned from more websites than you can imagine for going off on "pro-lifers." They can go off on me calling me a murderer/baby killer but if I say they should be sent to a labor camp I'm the bad guy. I even got banned already for saying abortion is perfectly fine until the moment of birth! George Carlin put it better than just about anyone ever about the "pro-life" scum

ZCWC4sHbIV0

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

This didn't pass, but the people behind it plan to try again in other states.

[Princess Luna]

Holy shit, I am shocked it didn't pass, usually Mississippi rivals Utah and Oklahoma for title of most backward state