No, it's not about abolishing corporate personhood unfortunately. It's about using state laws and state constitutions to define fetuses as persons -- persons with full rights from the moment of conception.
Yep, it's all about stopping women from murdering their babies.
And they don't plan to stop at ridding the country of abortions, they want to outlaw emergency contraception and birth control pills too.
This video, while not exactly riveting [I used this one so I could avoid using one posted by anti-abortionists], contains excerpts from the Personhood Colorado press conference where they announced their intent to amend the Colorado state constitution with another ballot initiative [the one in 2008 was defeated].
This video details a few situations in which fetal personhood laws can harm even pregnant women who do NOT want abortions.
Yesterday Personhood Florida launched their effort here in my state to criminalize enjoyable sex for women get fetal personhood on the next ballot and need to collect 676,811 signatures before Feb 2010. That's a pretty short time to collect that many signatures, but there are an awful lot of wingnuts here so it's doable.
The religion-infused movement, called "Personhood Florida," would define conception in Florida's constitution at the "biological beginnings," supporters said -- when the sperm meets the egg. The group filed its amendment today but the exact ballot language is still being worked out, said Secretary of State Spokeswoman Jennifer Krell-Davis.
The amendment seeks to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Also criminalized: the morning-after pill and oral contraceptives taken by women, known as the pill. "There are some (birth control) methods that kill a child," said Pat McEwan, who is leading the Personhood Florida group.
Here's hoping they fail.
Meanwhile, the parent group [ha!], Personhood USA, is targeting several other states for similar inititatives:
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- South Dakota
Coming soon to a state near you: the forced birthers!
- hipparchia's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Front page
Comments
Ha!
I want these idiots to try and bring this shit initiative up to Michigan just so it can be the victim of an epic fail. Really, I'd much rather them launch a frontal offensive than the subversive means by which they try to outlaw abortion.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
good luck to ya
they're going the subversive route. forewarned is forearmed.
Thanks for posting this,
but that second video is pretty didactic with its claims that C-sections are "dangerous surgeries," whereas V-bacs are "natural" (and therefore better and safer). This is not true. V-bacs are usually OK, except when there's an abruption, and in those 2% of cases there's a 50-50 chance of maternal death.
C-sections are safe because they're so common.
I'm on the side of women determining their own courses in all cases, but I wish the pro-"natural" childbirth movement would drop all of the romantic notions it has about the wonders of pushing a baby out of a vagina without drugs (or in some of the cases cited here, without any medical assistance!)
Thanks Historiann
If my wife had tried "natural" childbirth, both she and our son would be dead now. There was no possible way for us to know at the time that was what would have happened.
Occasionally modern medicine is not "evil".
Sorry, I don't fall in love with politicians. I'm not that desperate.
modern medcine is very very good
it has saved my life more than once so far. i'm glad it was there for your wife and child too.
the biggest evil in modern medicine is the profiteering, not the modernity and 'artificialness' of new technology.
you are absolutely correct
and i'm all in favor of modern medicine and modern technology and modern drugs and using them as much as we want to. i'm alive and blogging precisely because we have lots of all that stuff.
thanks for setting the record straight.
i didn't really like either of the videos and if i find replacements for them, i'll put them up.
I'm on the side of women determining their own courses in all cases,
me too!
, but I wish the pro-"natural" childbirth movement would drop all of the romantic notions it has about the wonders of pushing a baby out of a vagina without drugs
never having had children, i can't speak to this directly, but you can be sure that if i had, i'd have demanded drugs up front.
the puritans were a loony fringe group who deserved to be run out of england. too bad they ended up on the shores of a huge continent where they had so much room to grow into a force that unfortunately we have to deal with.
Thanks, all
The video you posted, hipparchia, makes your point well, which is that "personhood amendments" will be a lever the state uses to force all kinds of unwanted medical procedures on women, regardless of whether or not they're "good mommies," "bad mommies," or nasty sluts. (I just wish it could make the point without all of the anti-allopathic propaganda). Would they favor legislation that prohibited women from having a prescheduled C-section? Do they want to require all women to breastfeed for 3 months? All of these judgments turn into pretty slippery slopes that lead inevitably to one faction or another pushing their preferred styles of childbirth and infant-feeding over all others, and judging women who don't fall in line. As Okanogen says, surgical procedures save lives, and as Sarah suggests below, "nature" is vastly, vastly overrated.
We've gone through one round of this on the ballot in CO. Fortunately, the amendment was pushed by someone so naive and politically inept that even a large faction of the forced pregnancy crowd couldn't go along with it. My fear is that experience will make them smarter.
I should have been clear
What was involved in our case (after 38 hours of labor) was drugs, and drugs, and drugs, and tubes (lots and lots of tubes), and wires, and monitors (lots of those too) and emergency procedures (lots of those too) and an excellent team of doctors and nurses with elbows flying in the middle of the night, determined to save their lives and health.
But no surgery, that was always in the cards, but not the preferred course. Decisions based on best medical outcomes, not philosophies or moralities, or turtles dropping from the trees.
Just the way it should be.
Sorry, I don't fall in love with politicians. I'm not that desperate.
i thought your meaning was clear
but i enjoyed your telling of the story. thanks.
i never did know all the details of one of my medical adventures, since all i can remember is opening my eyes to find the tiny little emergency room cubicle absolutely stuffed full of people in white coats, all of them staring at me worriedly, and someone asking me: how do you feel?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Decisions based on best medical outcomes, not philosophies or moralities, or turtles dropping from the trees.
Just the way it should be.
precisely.
having done this twice, and despite claims "you get over it," I
distinctly remember every nonromantic minute of "natural childbirth without drugs."
It flat out sucks, even when you do it in a hospital.
My best friend's one child was delivered with the aid of an epidural -- and without that, her 32-hour-labor would not have been a bearable experience.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
Indications: US healthcare fails on reducing mortality for
babies and mothers, too. One article cites C-sections as a risk factor for childbirth mortality, which is rising in the US.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18