Abortion: Defining fertilized eggs as ‘persons’

“Could destroying a one-celled organism make you a murderer?” asked the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger in an editorial. Mississippi voters will get to answer that question on Nov. 8, when they vote on a “personhood amendment” to the state’s constitution. If the amendment is passed, a fertilized human egg would be considered a legal person in Mississippi—“and any action that destroys one could be viewed as murder.” That means all abortions would be illegal, even in the case of rape and incest or a pregnancy that places the mother’s life in danger. The legal ramifications don’t stop there, said the San Jose Mercury News. Birth control methods that prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus, such as IUDs and morning-after pills, would also be illegal. And there’d be no more in vitro fertilization, since many eggs are fertilized and destroyed in that process. Mississippi is on the brink of returning to the “Dark Ages.”

Don’t listen to these “baseless rumors,” said Dr. D. Eric Webb in the Hattiesburg, Miss., American. If this life-saving amendment passes, women will still be able to use most hormonal birth control pills, “which have never been proven to cause abortion.” As for ectopic and other pregnancies that might threaten a mother’s life, “the legal principles of self-defense” will adequately protect women and physicians from prosecution. So why are pro-choice activists making these “cruel and misleading assertions”? asked Donald Wildmon in the Pascagoula Mississippi Press. It’s simple. Abortion providers like Planned Parenthood profit from the legalized killing of fetuses. So it’s in their interest to deny unborn babies a constitutional protection we all take for granted: “the right not to be murdered.”

The battle over legal abortion is now entering a new chapter, said Irin Carmon in Salon​.com. Mississippi is “the most conservative state in the nation,” and the amendment is likely to pass. Pro-life activists are trying to get “personhood” amendments on the ballots in Ohio, South Dakota, and Florida in 2012. When several states define embryos as persons, the movement will try to overturn Roe v. Wade. If you think the U.S. Supreme Court won’t go that far, consider this: Justice Harry Blackmun, author of the Roe decision, noted during the 1973 hearing that the basis for legal abortion would “collapse” if “this suggestion of personhood is established.” That’s the pro-life movement’s ultimate goal, and Mississippi will be the first step.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up