'Personhood' Defeated in Mississippi
ACN Director Charlotte Taft on the Nov 8, 2011 defeat of referendum 26 on 'personhood' of a fertilized egg. The amendment could have banned not only abortion but also in vitro fertilization.
Mississippi ‘Personhood’ Amendment
The Abortion Care Network applauds the courageous will of Mississippians to fight back against the so-called personhood Amendment. Yet we are deeply disturbed that the Republican tea-baggers in this and other states are determined to play politics with women’s lives. Even though this amendment lost, it is a national tragedy and embarrassment that so many Americans have entered into a war against women.
Like any other fundamentalist religious sect, the central obsession of the Tea Party appears to be control of women’s lives and especially their sexuality. Although they promised voters solutions to the overwhelming national problems of unemployment, home foreclosures and the deep economic inequality that has been created and fostered by the Republican Party, these Republican newcomers are wolves in sheep’s clothing. In Mississippi, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and other states they have not effectively addressed any of the problems that plague Americans. Instead they have spent virtually all of their legislative attention on imposing their radical views about abortion and birth control on all of us. In a pluralistic society this is not just unfair—it is un American.
Their goal to criminalize all birth control, in vitro fertilization, and all abortion by making up an unscientific, a-historical and even un-religious new definition of when personhood begins, is out of step with what Americans want, need, and believe. Even the Catholic Church has never been so extreme as to claim that a two celled fertilized egg has the same legal status as a woman.
The United States was once a beacon of light heralding respect for women all over the world. These days that light has almost gone out. Perhaps we can soon expect Care Packages from women in countries whose governments do not hold them in contempt.
Charlotte Taft
Director, Abortion Care Network
505-490-2084
ctaft@abortioncarenetwork.org
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