Mississippi Catholic Bishop, Religious Leaders Denounce Personhood Anti-Abortion Bill

[pampango]

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/11/04/361337/mississippi-catholic-bishop-religious-leaders-denounce-personhood-anti-abortion-bill/

This Tuesday, Mississippians will vote on Initiative 26, a “personhood” amendment to the state constitution that defines a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.” This “profoundly ambiguous” amendment will deliberately trample on a woman’s reproductive health and privacy, essentially criminalizing abortion, outlawing contraception like the birth control pill, and even preventing couples from having a child through in vitro fertilization.

It is these consequences that leave even the most staunch anti-choice activists cold. The National Right to Life organization has refused to promote it. Even the Catholic Bishops have refused to endorse the amendment, noting that the bill is so extreme, it could jeopardize their more serious efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade:

Numerous religious leaders, who joined Bishop Latino at a press conference to speak out against the bill, were more forthright in their denunciations. “It is a blunt instrument which, if passed, will harm Mississippi women and their families both physically and spiritually,” said Rabbi Debra Kassoff. “Because God has sanctified not only fetal life, but all life, we urge Mississippians to vote against Initiative 26.”

Breyer also notes that Christian representatives have long argued against the idea that life beings at conception. Saint Augustine actually wrote on the question of “personhood” and “ascribed to the idea of delayed ‘ensoulment” in which the fetus did not “receive a human soul” until a certain number of days after conception. In 1994, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church expressed its “unequivocal opposition” to any action that would “abridge the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of her pregnancy, or that would limit the access of a woman to safe means of acting upon her decision.”

[meow2u3]

1. If the Catholic bishops oppose that bill, you know it's a specious law aimed at women

That law would even criminalize life-saving medical and surgical procedures which would result in an abortion as its side effect. It would also criminalize miscarriages. Last time I checked, miscarriage was a natural death.

Mississippi Rethugs are actually trying to take over God's job of deciding who's going to hell. I guess they'll find out the hard way that unpleasent consequences come to those who piss off the Almighty!

[jwirr]

2. That bill should be taken to the SCOTUS. When it outlaws birth control

it is forcing a religious principle from one specific church (Roman Catholic) on others. Most protestant churches do not forbid birth control. This law is deliberately establishing one religion which if I am not mistaken is not constitutional.

[recoveringdittohed]

3. Will the amendment accidentally outlaw corporate personhood in Mississippi?

The amendment seems to require a person to be a human being. Nowhere near reason enough to support the amendment but maybe a small silver lining if it passes?