On November 8th there will be a measure on the ballot in Mississippi to declare a fertilized egg a "person." This is just the latest in the overzealous, far-right evangelicals' attempt to create a workaround for the fact that they can't get abortion outlawed in this country. This law would, in fact, make abortion, some forms of birth control (the morning after pill, such as is used in cases of rape, for example), as well as discarding unneeded embryos created for in-vitro fertilization procedures murder. That's how ridiculous this gets.
See my previous posts regarding abortions and abortion law, including the outrageous law just passed in North Carolina. I have always said, and will always say, that I do not believe abortion should be used as birth control. However, there are occasions (again, refer to my previous posts) where it is medically necessary, where it is ethical (rape of a 10-year old, anyone?) or where it is the most humane thing to do (such as in the case of a fetus that cannot survive outside the womb). Making abortions illegal would take women back to the days of backroom, coathanger abortions, which are just damn dangerous and could mean death for the mother. But the so-called "pro-lifers" don't care about the life of the mother, apparently. All they care about is a fertilized egg.
By the way, in case those people neglected to sit through their junior high class on the subject, it takes more than a sperm meeting with an egg to make a baby. It also takes a third item, the most critical one - implantation into the womb. Without this element, there will be no baby. Got it? So why does this ridiculous law go so far as to protect fertilized eggs that have no chance of growing into human babies?
Now, as a secularist I don't believe people have souls at any stage of their lives. But anyone who thinks a few cells in a petri dish has a soul is just crazy. Period.
I have yet to see attached to a bill like this any funding for orphanages and caretakers for the children who will be abandoned should this bill take effect. If Mississippi wants to pass this bill, then they should make it clear to the voters that their taxes will go up to fund such organizations, but I never hear this talked about. What do these lawmakers think will happen to these children?
I hope the people of Mississippi, as well as Florida, Ohio and other states considering such laws, think about the other people involved in cases like this. If you seriously believe that a little girl who has been raped should have to carry that baby to term, endangering her life and mental health, then you live in a different moral universe than I do. That is simply using women as tools to obtain a political result, and that is wrong.
