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Tuesday, December 27 2005 @ 05:55 AM PST
Reproductive Rights: U.S. House Bill Would Legally Define Abortion As Murder
Monday, December 26 2005 @ 01:43 PM PST
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 95
A bill that is currently before Congress, tilted the "Right to Life Act" (HR552) would extend 14th Amendment protections and "personhood" status to a developing fetus, using the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, in order to criminalize abortion -- and even some forms of contraception -- as murder.
Representative Dincan Hunter of California is sponsoring the bill.
According to the website, http://www.righttolifeact.org, the bill would effectively overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade by "establishing personhood."
From the site:
Would this legislation actually overturn Roe v. Wade?
Yes, it would.
Few people realize that Roe v. Wade shows us the way to its own downfall. The key passage, written by the author of the majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun, states in unequivocal terms: "If personhood is established, the case for legalized abortion collapses, for the fetus' right to life would be guaranteed by the 14th Amendment." (Roe v. Wade, Majority Decision, Section IX)
Yet this definition exists nowhere in legal precendent, philosophy, practice or social custom. While some philosophers and scientists may debate the question of life (ie. is a virus alive?), there is no legitimate or rational challenge to the long held definition of "person" as one who has been born, is or has been sentient and thus interacted in one form or another with other "persons."
A stillbirth is not a person. A bundle of cells is not a person. One has only to recall how Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum brought home his wife's 20-week old miscarriage and instructed his children to sing, cuddle and hug it to get a good look at the warped mindset behind this.
In line with this view, HR552 defines a person as: "each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being."
This definition blows the door wide open and could possibly lead to a ban on all forms of contraception, including spermacide, condoms, diaphragms and even literature advocating contraception, the right to an abortion or reproductive freedom. Such laws were used that way as recently as sixty to eighty years ago.
The real question beyond this is the effect it would have were it to pass. Women who have been faced with the difficult and traumatic experience of being pregnant and poor, young, socially ostracized, abused or otherwise physically and mentally coerced into becoming pregnant and going to term would be criminally liable for murder charges, as would any physician who aided them.
Nor would this necessarily be limited to prosecution of women after the bill's passage; it could effectively be applied retroactively by combing through previously confidential medical records, a move which then Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted in 2002 when seeking access for the Justice department into confidential medical records.
HR552 is yet another example of religious fundamentalists trying to repress the freedom of others in deciding what is best for themselves and their bodies. In the site's FAQ, the last questions is "What can I do to help?" The response?
"If you are religious, you should pray to end abortion. Nothing is impossible with God."
The full text is available at http://www.righttolifeact.org/html/home.html including a list of sponsors and co-sponsors of the bill.
Story by Pete Spina.
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