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The shortest constitutional amendment on the November ballot may also be the most destructive.
Amendment 48, the so-called Personhood Amendment, is all of one sentence long: “the terms 'person' or 'persons' shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.”
Sounds innocuous, doesn't it? Indeed, amendment sponsor Kristi Burton has gone out of her way to claim this is just about clarifying definitions, not outlawing abortions, like she was the Johnny Appleseed of wordsmithing. Burton must have gotten her degree in disingenuousness, because if this measure passes, it could make all abortions—and many forms of birth control - illegal in Colorado, and force women who get pregnant by mistake or coercion to bear a child against their will.
The whole reason for this deceptive amendment is to pretend fertilized eggs are the same as human beings, and to guarantee them full legal and constitutional rights.
This amendment is wrong on so many levels - biological, moral, political—it's hard to know where to start, so let's get to the heart of it. A fertilized egg IS NOT a person. Not even close. It's a cluster of a few cells, which have not yet begun to specialize into nerves, muscle, organs, and all the rest. If all goes well, a fertilized egg might become a person—if it implants in the uterine wall, develops normally, and makes it nine months to birth.
Well, say anti-abortion zealots, a fertilized egg is alive, and it's human, therefore it must be human life, right? True, but they miss the crucial difference between human life and a human being. My hair, my skin, my fingernails are all alive and growing, and since I'm human, those cells constitute “human life” too. That does not make them persons deserving protection by federal marshals.
If a fertilized egg is a person, consider the bizarre implications. Birth control that prevents implantation becomes murder. A woman whose natural monthly cycle flushes out a fertilized egg—whether she knows she's pregnant or not—becomes a murderer. Any woman with two or more periods becomes a serial killer. Women would have to be on bed rest all the time - guarded by the pious pregnancy police—lest they inadvertently harm a fertilized egg they might not even know they were carrying. Congressional seats will have to be redistributed by the number of persons—including fertilized eggs—residing in them. Who's gonna count?
I don’t know anyone who is “pro-abortion,” although I do know many pro-choice people. Abortion is generally a very difficult decision, because it ends a potential human life, and one not taken lightly. That's why even women who say they are anti-abortion themselves, often seek out abortions when they find themselves unhappily pregnant. The point is, the woman herself must have the right to decide, with advice from her partner, her doctor, and whoever else she wants to consult. Without control of the most basic decisions about their own bodies, women become breeding stock, not autonomous adults. Don't they have personhood rights too?
The Supreme Court got it right in Roe v. Wade when it ruled abortions permissible for any reason a woman chooses, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable,’ that is, potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid.”
Viability is generally considered about 28 weeks, but medical advances are pushing that date even earlier. Even after viability, the court ruled in Doe v. Bolton that abortion must be available to protect a woman's health.
The legalization of abortion has prevented millions of unwanted children from being born. That's a blessing, not a tragedy. The real answer is to make unwanted pregnancy rare through universally available, affordable, and effective birth control procedures. Too bad anti-abortion radicals oppose birth control too. They're really anti-sex.
Vote no on Amendment 48, and keep Colorado from becoming one giant Yearning for Zion ranch.
Eric Fried knows the difference between a chicken and an egg at eric@pvgreens.org.
Amendment 48, the so-called Personhood Amendment, is all of one sentence long: “the terms 'person' or 'persons' shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.”
Sounds innocuous, doesn't it? Indeed, amendment sponsor Kristi Burton has gone out of her way to claim this is just about clarifying definitions, not outlawing abortions, like she was the Johnny Appleseed of wordsmithing. Burton must have gotten her degree in disingenuousness, because if this measure passes, it could make all abortions—and many forms of birth control - illegal in Colorado, and force women who get pregnant by mistake or coercion to bear a child against their will.
The whole reason for this deceptive amendment is to pretend fertilized eggs are the same as human beings, and to guarantee them full legal and constitutional rights.
This amendment is wrong on so many levels - biological, moral, political—it's hard to know where to start, so let's get to the heart of it. A fertilized egg IS NOT a person. Not even close. It's a cluster of a few cells, which have not yet begun to specialize into nerves, muscle, organs, and all the rest. If all goes well, a fertilized egg might become a person—if it implants in the uterine wall, develops normally, and makes it nine months to birth.
Well, say anti-abortion zealots, a fertilized egg is alive, and it's human, therefore it must be human life, right? True, but they miss the crucial difference between human life and a human being. My hair, my skin, my fingernails are all alive and growing, and since I'm human, those cells constitute “human life” too. That does not make them persons deserving protection by federal marshals.
If a fertilized egg is a person, consider the bizarre implications. Birth control that prevents implantation becomes murder. A woman whose natural monthly cycle flushes out a fertilized egg—whether she knows she's pregnant or not—becomes a murderer. Any woman with two or more periods becomes a serial killer. Women would have to be on bed rest all the time - guarded by the pious pregnancy police—lest they inadvertently harm a fertilized egg they might not even know they were carrying. Congressional seats will have to be redistributed by the number of persons—including fertilized eggs—residing in them. Who's gonna count?
I don’t know anyone who is “pro-abortion,” although I do know many pro-choice people. Abortion is generally a very difficult decision, because it ends a potential human life, and one not taken lightly. That's why even women who say they are anti-abortion themselves, often seek out abortions when they find themselves unhappily pregnant. The point is, the woman herself must have the right to decide, with advice from her partner, her doctor, and whoever else she wants to consult. Without control of the most basic decisions about their own bodies, women become breeding stock, not autonomous adults. Don't they have personhood rights too?
The Supreme Court got it right in Roe v. Wade when it ruled abortions permissible for any reason a woman chooses, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable,’ that is, potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid.”
Viability is generally considered about 28 weeks, but medical advances are pushing that date even earlier. Even after viability, the court ruled in Doe v. Bolton that abortion must be available to protect a woman's health.
The legalization of abortion has prevented millions of unwanted children from being born. That's a blessing, not a tragedy. The real answer is to make unwanted pregnancy rare through universally available, affordable, and effective birth control procedures. Too bad anti-abortion radicals oppose birth control too. They're really anti-sex.
Vote no on Amendment 48, and keep Colorado from becoming one giant Yearning for Zion ranch.
Eric Fried knows the difference between a chicken and an egg at eric@pvgreens.org.
