Sunday, July 22, 2007

Anti-abortion amendment on fall ballot? Jim Spencer speaks out on the proposed anti-abortion constitutional amendment for the fall ballot in Colorado. He writes: If a fertilized egg is a person, isn't every woman whose uterine wall fails to implant one guilty of involuntary manslaughter? If a fertilized egg is a person, wouldn't every fertility clinic that discarded a frozen embryo be guilty of murder? If a fertilized egg is a person, shouldn't every pregnant woman be entitled to an extra tax deduction? The scientific and legal ramifications of a constitutional amendment that abortion opponents want to put on Colorado's November 2008 ballot are absurd and catastrophic. The amendment would change accepted medical definitions of when life begins. It could make some forms of contraception tantamount to homicide." Backers of the amendment must still get 76,000 signatures of registered voters to place the measure on the ballot. Even if they succeed, passage is a long shot. The egg-as-person amendment may be aimed at getting the far right wing base of the Republican party to the polls in a presidential election. But the fact that anyone would propose such a bizarre idea shows how empowered extremists feel by a Supreme Court stacked by George W. Bush with justices who have shown a propensity to take away women's rights. The snares of the egg-as-person definition would not only strip women of just about all their personal reproductive rights, it could conceivably put them and their doctors in prison. Category: Denver November 2007 Election 8:33:26 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 8/1/07; 8:22:39 AM.