Anti-abortion ‘personhood’ movement to come to Wisconsin
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 3:58 pm
- 9 Comments
The “personhood movement” has recently made inroads in Wisconsin, where state Rep. Andre Jacque (2nd Assembly District) has promised to introduce an amendment to the state constitution that would change the definition of a person to include “preborn” babies.
Many critics say such laws could also criminalize some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization.
In a YouTube video on the recently launched Personhood Wisconsin— affiliated with Pro-Life Wisconsin and Personhood USA — Jacque explains that his state’s constitution is flawed because in order to have access to the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it requires Wisconsinites must first be born.
Jacque continues:
“What this simply does is takes out that requirement that you be born to have these inalienable rights that I think we all should enjoy as human beings. Unfortunately, if you take a look at the possibilities of Roe v. Wadebeing overturned, we would not have constitutional protection for the unborn in Wisconsin. And that’s why I feel that short of having this change in the constitution and putting it before the voters, there will be the ability for an activist Wisconsin state Supreme Court to deny rights to people that clearly should have that kind of protection – all people, every person at all stages of development.
It really is something where if you take a look at the statute that we already have on the books here in Wisconsin, in terms of prohibiting abortion, that could be stripped away, and it’s important that we find a way to restore that guarantee to all Wisconsin citizens that their human dignity will be respected from the movement of conception until natural death.”
According to Personhood Wisconsin, the amendment is “currently in drafting” but will be introduced this month. This week Personhood Wisconsin unveiled a billboard advertising the to-be-proposed amendment with pictures of humans at different stages of development and an all-caps message on the billboard reading: “YOU. ME. EVERYBODY. WE’RE ALL JUST GROWN-UP EMBRYOS.”
The billboard was designed by Youth Defence, an anti-abortion-rights media group based in Dublin, Ireland, and is sponsored by Pro-Life Wisconsin, 40 Days for Life of Green Bay, Personhood USA and Youth Defence. According to Pro-Life Wisconsin, it is currently located on Highway 41, south of Green Bay, but will move to a different location in Green Bay every three months.
“Demonstrating that at one point, all of us were just embryos, the personhood message is one we can all identify with,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin spokesperson Virginia Zignego in a statement.
In November, Mississippians will vote on whether to add a “personhood” amendment appears to their state constitution. Though there are similar amendments being pushed throughout the country, a national “personhood” amendment seems unlikely, for now.
As American Independent sister site The Florida Independent noted recently, Personhood USA is trying to pressure GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney to support Mississippi’s “personhood” amendment, in response to statements he made last month, saying he did not support using the Fourth Amendment to overturn Roe v. Wadebecause it could lead to a “constitutional crisis.”
Romney is not the only presidential candidate having trouble supporting the “personhood” movement at the national level. Herman Cain made headlines this week after stating on national television that he opposes abortion in all instances — even in cases of rape and incest — but also that “it’s not the government’s role or anybody else’s role to make that decision.”
9 Comments
Comment posted October 21, 2011 @ 4:25 pm
Ever since I found out that corporations are “persons,” it just hasn’t seemed all that special to me.
Comment posted October 21, 2011 @ 8:55 pm
If a fetus is now a person, does that mean that a pregnant woman can drive in the car pool lane?
Comment posted October 23, 2011 @ 12:53 am
Where is this country going? The Personhood idea failed in Colorado last year for a 2nd time. Now legislators around the country want to make NOT being pregnant a criminal offense in a manner of speaking. How does this create jobs? It doesn’t!
This issue is divides Americans rather than focuses on other pressing problems. Government has NO business telling women they cannot take responsibility for their vertility via birth Control Pills or devices to avoid pregnancy. Under many Personhood Bills in State Legislatures, Miscarriage would involve a Criminal investigation, Hysterectomies, Vasectomies, Intro Vitro, and Birth Control could also become illegal. What is this country coming to?
This will never effect me because I lack the parts now due to a cancer scare 4 years ago, but I have a daughter and 2 granddaughters who could be subjected to ultra conservative zealots who want to control them via insane laws. This is not about saving pre-born lives. It’s About CONTROL!!!
I will fight any Conservative Minnesota Legislator who even proposes such an idea with protests and my right to speak out.
Comment posted October 24, 2011 @ 10:53 am
-Over 20,000 people die prematurely every year in the US due to microparticle pollution. (Note, these are actual persons, not fetuses, and the religious right supports candidates who want to stop the government from being able to regulate this pollution.)
-3 veterans per day attempt suicide. (Where are the pious “pro-lifers” with regard to this problem? Answer: they’re supporting politicians who want to CUT money from veteran’s services.)
-We have an enormous obesity and diabetes problem and it’s only projected to get worse. (The anti-abortionists back politicians who support corporate personhood, thus ensuring that regulation to restrict junk food advertising to children will be made more difficult if not impossible.)
-Most conservatives oppose measures to do anything about climate change, which is projected to cost potentially millions of lives in the coming decades.
Instead of focusing on things that actually matter in the world, we’re forced to respond to the mindless misunderstandings and reproductive fixations of religious conservatives.
Comment posted October 26, 2011 @ 6:56 pm
It will just give the government and the Right to Lifers permission to micromanage women’s (and physicians) lives…what next, throwing women in jail because they drink caffeine while pregnant? Women will be treated as children who must be monitored to protect their baby. Birth control is not a “lifestyle” choice, it is a necessity. Without birth control, women were at the mercy of their bodies’ biological clocks. Back in the 60′s, when birth control was against the law, women were unable to work and earn a living for their families because they were either constantly in worry of being pregnant or BEING pregnant. This whole Personhood amendment is ridiculous because a) there is no way to prove when conception occurs, only when the egg is fertilized and implanted. How will this be proven in court when accusing a women of murder? That flies in the face of innocent until proven guilty. b) Women’s lives will be at risk when a physician must take measure to ensure he is not harming the baby…will s/he now start denying women birth control, or the morning after pill for fear of persecution?
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 12:27 am
When did it become acceptable to begin signing death warrants for women because they happen to be pregnant !!! Ectopic pregnancy isn’t a joke. This is placing the mothers life in Jeopardy!! What happened to the separation between church and state!! When did what the church feels become what an individual can feel?
Situations can arise and you may have to choose between your life and the Fetus. That’s not the governments job! This a choice for the person carrying the fetus.
This would remove PLAN B from the shelves in your state! How can we allow this? THIS just pushing equal rights further back. WOMEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE!! THIS IS NOT THE GOVERNMENT’S PLACE!!!
What’s Next? Taking away birth control? Abstinence only schools? There are women in other countries that can’t even be taught about safe sex or their program funding is cut. We talk about being free thinkers but, when is it a step forward to take away MY FREEDOM TO CHOOSE! I am a citizen of the United States but, I’m feeling a little bit like a dairy cow…
When can Minnesotans start protesting this? I’ll be there!!
Comment posted November 9, 2011 @ 3:59 pm
Support life after birth…health care…education…food…shelter…for all.
Pingback posted November 22, 2011 @ 8:43 pm
[...] The 2011 elections are 24 hours away, and, as we’ve written about before, there is a very dangerous anti-choice ballot initiative up for a vote in Mississippi. The so-called “Personhood Amendment” to the Mississippi State Constitution (Proposition 26), if passed, would amend the state constitution to define the term “person” as including “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof.” In practice, this amendment would ban virtually all abortions, including those resulting from rape or incest. It would even bar some birth control methods, including IUDs and “morning-after pills” that prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus, and it would outlaw the destruction of embryos created in laboratories, potentially impacting the process of in vitro fertilization that helps individuals with fertility issues conceive children. While this ballot initiative is only up for a vote in Mississippi this year, there have been efforts to place similar “personhood amendments” on ballots in Florida, Colorado, Ohio, Montana, and Wisconsin. [...]
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