Mississippi Personhood Law Proposes To Make Abortion, Birth Control, IVF Illegal

In less than two weeks, Mississippi will vote on an amendment for its state constitution that declares "The term 'person' or 'persons' shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof." Proposition 26, aka the "Personhood" amendment, would, as the NY Times puts it, "would ban virtually all abortions, including those resulting from rape or incest. It would bar some birth control methods, including IUDs and 'morning-after pills,' which prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus. It would also outlaw the destruction of embryos created in laboratories." And there's a possibility of it might "even open the door to investigating women who have suffered miscarriages."

While the executive director of the Yes on 26 campaign Brad Prewitt tells the Times, "I view it as transformative. Personhood is bigger than just shutting abortion clinics; it’s an opportunity for people to say that we’re made in the image of God," this will be an incredible boon for lawyers and likely tie up courts for years if it passes. The Clarion-Ledger reported on a debate at the Mississippi College School of Law:

Rebecca Kiessling of Michigan, a family law attorney who supports the initiative, said if it passes, the state attorney general or a local prosecutor could announce the intention to start enforcing homicide laws by using the new definition of "personhood." She said that likely would prompt a court battle.

"We would have to wait this out as it went up through the court system," Kiessling said.

Amelia McGowan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, said the word "person" appears in state law more than 9,000 times. She said if the amendment passes, "I think it will change the entire framework of state law."

Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School professor who participated in the panel discussion by teleconference, said if the amendment passes, judges will have to interpret it and determine how it applies to Mississippi law and whether, for example, it would affect birth control, IVF or only abortion.

"Whether you are for or against abortion, whatever your position is, this is a bad amendment - not because of what it represents but because it is ambiguous," Cohen said.

Still, a lawyer for an anti-abortion group said, "There is a moment when the chromosomes from a woman and the chromosomes from a man unite and form a unique, new individual. The question, then, is simple: Is it fully human - is he or she fully human? And is he or she alive? The answer to both of those questions is emphatically yes. As a society, it becomes incumbent upon us to take steps to recognize that fact and then to implement laws to protect it." (The Center for Reproductive Rights says, "The Supreme Court of the United States has clearly held that constitutional rights do not extend to fetuses or embryos and that neither legislatures nor courts can rely on a particular theory of when life begins to prohibit a woman from exercising her right to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability.")

The Mississippi Supreme Court has previously decided that the proposition does not violate the state constitution, allowing it to go to ballot. The two candidates for governor also support the measure: Democrat Johnny DuPree said, "The reason I have to say that is because my wife and I were pregnant when we married. We were teenagers. We married. Didn't abort. We married. My daughter who we didn't abort has a 4-year-old son. He is an in vitro baby. So, can you see why? Personhood ... starts at fertilization. If we didn't feel that way, we wouldn't have had our baby. And if we felt that way, I wouldn't have my grandbaby." But what about the other fertilized embryos?

According to the Times, "Its passage could energize similar drives brewing in Florida, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and other states." Yesterday, in North Carolina, a restrictive abortion law took effect—which requires women to be informed of "adverse psychological effects" of abortions—though a judge did temporarily block "the law's most controversial requirement — that a woman getting an abortion must first view a narrated ultrasound image of the fetus."

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By Jen Chung in News on October 26, 2011 5:37 PM

Comments [rss]

TLOSN

This has to be the most uneducated State in the Union!

Ryan Queen

Soooo, basically they are impeding on private intimacy of citizens? And backing this arguement with "God thinks its evil" impedes on seperation of church + state, which is unconstitutional. Think about all the people who would be forced to take on a baby and driven into poverty thus destroying the kid's life as well as their own.

In other words, this propostion is stupid.

Jeffery McClain

These people are nitwits who believe in miracles. Sanctity of life? Please don't make me laugh. As the late great George Carlin so astutely observed- "If a fetus is a human, then why don't miscarriages have funerals? If a fetus is a human, why do pregnant couples say 'we have one child and another on the way'? Why not just say 'we have two kids'? Conservatives love babies until they are born...then it's fuck you! You're on your own!" Oh, Mississippi! Your backwardness would be hilarious, if it wasn't so tragic.

Gensfre

Maybe the Civil War was based on a good idea. I think we should separate the south from the United States, mostly so that we won't have to share the country with those assholes.

JacksBack72

Hey- and while they're at it. . . why not ban MASTURBATION as being illegal as well?!
(So this way- they'll be no more 'Jerk-Offs'- at all living in Mississippi!)

Michael Burke

There are plenty of reasonable, intelligent individuals in MS that are against this, so please refrain from making bigoted statements about Mississippians in general, please.

Melissa Puntenney

I will withhold my bigoted judgment statements about Mississippians in general until after election night.

Guest

That won't happen. People in the North truly think that Southerners are all stupid and backwards. And if they don't, then they'll understand the irony of my stereotyping them with my reply.

Will Grizzell

No, we know that many are, and that they make up a large enough percentage to make things like this pass. Just because there are a lot of sane and rational people in the south doesn't excuse the rest.

Guest

It may not excuse the rest, but it should make the rest of the country less hateful towards that region. You never hear people in the South make fun of people from Long Island like this, even though LI accents aren't even attractive when it comes from their females. At least Southern belles' accents are kinda cute. And this won't pass, even in MS. If it does, it will be challenged all the way to the Supereme Court, where they will rule it unConstitutional.

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Michael Martino

What this article fails to point out is that the Pill, used by tens of millions, does not prevent fertilization; it merely prevents the fertilized egg from attaching to the uteri wall. So, allow this prop to pass, and anyone who is on the Pill would no longer be allowed to get their prescriptions filled, and taking the Pill could, essentially, lead to a murder charge. Good luck!

kaycem

a NARRATED video of the ultrasound ...?!? that would be hilarious if it weren't so disgusting.

threechordme

so the people against abortion had an IVF baby? You know because that doesn't destroy any embryos at all... ugh people

stewart_nyc

I've never understood the "life begins at fertilization" argument. An ectopic pregnancy is not viable by definition, and if discovered the woman needs to get medical attention and the pregnancy cannot continue. Yet in that situation, there has been fertilization, just not successful implantation. So if a successful pregnancy depends on implantation, why is the morning after pill, which prevents implantation, bad?

But then again, I'm trying to use reason here....

SFNY

That zygote may be smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, but they'll still tell you "It's a real baby!" getting killed by an evil whore.

jennabraunstein

And then when the mother can't afford the baby they forced her to keep, will they offer any assistance? Nope, that would be anti-american communism!

Lieutenant Oin

Carlin said it best: These people are all in favor of the unborn, they would do anything for the unborn, but once your born? You're on your own! Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to 9 months after that they don't wanna know about you they don't wanna hear from you, no nothing! No neo-natal care, no daycare, no headstart, no school lunch, no foodstamps, no wellfare, no nothing. If you're pre-born you're fine, if you're pre-school you're fucked.
They don't give a shit about you until you reach military age! They suddenly you're just fine, just what they've been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvF1Q3...

Dan

You can't use reason with religious people.

Guest

Not all religious people are against abortion. That's as dumb of a stereotype as black people loving watermelon.

Mordicai

Yep, this certainly will change the whole framework of the law. Way for the worse. Scary effing theocrats. This sort of stuff is what happens when you marry your economic policies to the religious extremists just to use their votes.