While the birth control debacle has become the hot topic for the Republican Nomination, other politicians are pushing Personhood Laws in eleven states. These laws would be a serious infringement on the rights of women, but outside of our small community, I haven’t really heard it discussed at all. I wanted to take the time to talk about what exactly this could mean.
States such as California, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Virginia all have or had some kind of Personhood bill in the works in the past year. What this piece of legislation does is it gives constitutional rights to all fetuses. Most importantly, it gives fetuses the right to live. Since through some eyes abortion is seen as murder, it would subsequently outlaw abortion even for pregnancies that are the product of rape and incest and also for life-threatening medical emergencies. Because of these laws, the rights of the unborn will outweigh the life of a woman.
It would also mean that all women in these states would have to carry every pregnancy to term. While on the new Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC, Feministing.com editor Chloe Angyal revealed the problem quite eloquently. Basically, she said that because women have to carry pregnancies to term, this would result in forced birth. The government would be forcing women to give birth. It’s a big deal.
If you’re not a huge nerd like me, you might not have watched MHP’s show which started airing a few weeks ago. It’s definitely something you should check out. The first episode is the one that contains this discussion of the birth control debate that is oh so hot right now. If you have 20 minutes to spare, I totally recommend watching the video.
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