Personhood Law

Okay everyone, I suppose it's time for me to come out of the closet. The liberal closet, that is.  I have done a pretty good job of keeping politics off my blog but I guess it's time to fess up to the fact that I am an extremely liberal minded person. I am pro gay marriage (I was ecstatic when DADT was repealed!) and I am absolutely for the separation of church and state.  I am sure a lot of people will be surprised to learn that I am pro choice, despite my infertility and Catholic upbringing.  I stood with Planned Parenthood and I have been absolutely appalled at the attack on women in this country over the last several months. The most recent issue that has me outraged is the proposed Mississippi "Personhood Law."

This law, Proposition 26, is seeking to define a fertilized egg as a person. That means that a petri dish full of little embryonic cells would have the same rights as you and me, potentially making IVF illegal. That means that the woman who was brutally raped would not be offered the morning after pill since it could prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. That means that the daughter who was the victim of incest would be forced to carry and deliver her rapist's child.  That means that a woman with an ectopic pregnancy would not be given the medical care she will need because doctors will not be allowed to 'abort' her pregnancy, even if her life was in jeopardy.  I truly wonder how many of these politicians have ever walked a mile in the shoes of a woman who has had to face such a difficult situation.

Why do I care about this law since I don't live in MS? A law similar to this has also been proposed in OH (or perhaps it passed?) and I worry about it spreading to other states. I've been reading many articles on this proposition but this article brought up a few issues I hadn't though of before like doctors being forbidden to intervene in the case of an ectopic pregnancy. How horrible. What do they expect us to do? Bringing charges on a woman for miscarriage? There are already cases pending. It's disgusting.

Considering Mississippi has the some of the highest poverty rates and lowest literacy rates in the country, you'd think that legislatures would concern themselves with more pressing matters. Hell, the same could be said for the big wigs in Washington D.C..  It's unbelievable how much time has been wasted over the Planned Parenthood debate while this country remains in economic turmoil. America needs jobs but apparently what I do with my uterus is a bigger priority.