Discussion for article #227230
“Love the fetus, hate the child”
15 Likes
[quote] … “the inalienable right to life of every person at any stage of development shall be recognized and protected.” [/quote] Until actual birth.
FIFY.
8 Likes
The logical legal meaning of “personhood” amendments is that a zygote has the full legal status of a live child.
In turn, that means that every woman who has a miscarriage should be immediately taken into questioning by law enforcement authorities for possible homicide, even if the miscarriage takes place just one week after the pregnancy began. Only through extensive and invasive physical examinations and tests can it be legally determined whether or not the mother took actions to induce the miscarriage herself.
Furthermore, since a zygote has the same legal status of a live child, it is logically illegal for a woman who has miscarried—or the attending medical professionals—to not turn over the miscarried zygotic material to legal authorities for forensic examination to determine if a crime was committed.
In addition, any woman who has two or more miscarriages should automatically be placed under suspicion, as would any parents who have two live children die under their care in separate incidents.
Lastly, since zygotes have the same legal status as a live child, states should pass laws requiring the parents of a miscarried zygote to have a full Christian burial, as would any live child delivered to term.
4 Likes
Christianists, such as Ms. Castrator here are about their own freedumb to do you in. Proselytizers know no bounds (a little duck told me.)
2 Likes
Says the braggart who castrates pigs!!
1 Like
If someone built a robot out of legos that could spout out right wing red meat like Ernst does, it would get at least 45% of the vote. The robot/person giving the message is irrelevant.
If I was a grifter, preying on the Tea Party would be easy picking.
3 Likes
At least she writes on paper instead of her hand. Look ma, no ink. Er, was that oink.
Since any menstrual period could potentially carry the remains of an unimplanted blastocyst, a personhood amendment would logically require the collection and examination of every tampon and sanitary napkin sold. It would also require the banning of any device, substance or activity that might prevent implantation, starting with IUDs and working up to vigorous exercise.
And yeah, once you’re born, you’re on your own.
1 Like
Excellent points. All women should be forced to stay in private Christian Menstruation Chapels during their “period” to make sure that no precious zygotes are lost.
1 Like
I I like the ad - it’s simple and straightforward and lets the voter draw reasonable conclusions about Ernst. I don’t know how the idea of fetal personhood polls in Iowa among likely voters, but I have hopes that the women of childbearing age there can smell an existential threat to their constitutional rights when it wafts their way.
Time will tell, but I’ll definitely raise a flute of champagne if she’s soundly defeated in Nov…
1 Like
The fact that this race is within the margin of error is a sad statement on ignorance and the American public generally, and apathy among those who most need to get out and vote.
4 Likes
Spot on, Mountain from Cubic Centimeter.
How can these people be essentially tied?
Ugh, I can’t stomach the thought of another midwestern crazy-eyed crazy crazerson in congress!
1 Like
I am sure Ernst would support allowing individuals to shop for health insurance across state lines. The GOP Idiots came up with another novel ideas, across the counter birth control, to deflect from their addiction to personhood legislation. Still playing the woman as ignorant in the War on Women.
Question, will my 1040 allow me to add a zygote as a dependent? I could use the extra deduction.
1 Like
The personhood concept is their monster. Unleash it on them.
This is a dull ad, so much like a million other political ads that I’d forget what the topic was within seconds after it ended. Calling “personhood” legislation radical is accurate, but keeps the discussion so abstract that people will just figure out what side their team is lined up on and then not give the matter a second thought.
There are 3 big problems with personhood I’d explore to show how kooky and undesirable personhood laws are.
-
The 9-months of pre-birth personhood granted to the zygote/embryo/fetus are largely stolen from the woman who carries the zygote/embryo/fetus in her body. It is not possible to grant full personhood to zygote/embryo/fetus without decreasing the status of the woman to something substantially less than full personhood. One could be very creative in giving concrete examples of how pregnant women might be affected by the loss of rights. Biologists sometimes describe pregnancy as a war between the woman and the embryo/fetus – there are an enormous number of ordinary, routine activities that benefit the woman to the (usually small) detriment of the embryo/fetus.
-
Personhood laws display profound ignorance of and denial of the complexity and variation of real-world conception and development. I’ve had people tell me that a fertilized egg is a human, because it is alive and has human DNA, but the many billions of cells in our bodies share those characteristics. Nature has far less respect than the personhood proponents do for fertilized eggs and for embryos and fetuses further along in development. Most estimates I’ve seen are that at least half of fertilized eggs either fail to implant or result in miscarriages after implantation – nature often disagrees with personhood advocates about what qualifies as a developing human. Nature is also not terribly concerned about maintaining a neat 1:1 ratio of fertilized eggs to developing embryos/fetuses, and produces some results, such as molar pregnancy, chimeras, and fetus-in-fetu, that challenge the very concept of personhood at fertilization.
-
Taking personhood seriously creates the possibility of a nightmare world of investigation and monitoring to enforce the rights of the zygote/embryo/fetus. Run with that. Estimate how many miscarriages and failed implantations Iowa’s women experience each year and talk about “250,000 (or whatever number is appropriate) additional homicide investigations each year”. Let the personhood proponents muddy their ideology by explaining why the death of a embryo/fetus wouldn’t be taken as seriously as the death of a child after birth. Have an ad where a law enforcement officer explains how one might conduct a homicide investigation after an early miscarriage, and what actions of the mother might have to be suspected as contributing to the death of the embryo/fetus.