The Personhood Movement and Anti-Choice Scare Tactics

The activists working for the personhood movement are trying to take away women’s rights. When women lose their reproductive rights, they lose the right to a life, plain and simple. The right to a career, the right to timing and spacing their children as they desire, the right to put off childbearing, as well as their rights to health care. So why would anyone want to vote for this?

Well, the personhood movement is disguising their main agenda. They are making Amendment 26 all about abortion. Do you think abortion is murder? Vote for Amendment 26! Do you think abortion is morally wrong? Vote for Amendment 26! Do you think women should maybe have the right to choose even though you personally find abortion a little unsettling or disturbing? Vote for Amendment 26! Instead of discussing how the amendment could affect all reproductive rights, they use racial messages, slavery images and religious overtones to condemn abortion, over and over. Abortion is a sticky issue and everyone knows it; so if they make this amendment all about abortion, they can swing moderate voters who may be unsure of their stance.

I recently visited the Personhood Movement’s website. They encourage personhood activists to “use the term point of creation instead of conception, or even fertilization.” They are intentionally invoking religious language to scare religious voters. Creation reminds us of God, and God doesn’t like abortion right?

For one thing, this is clearly crossing the line that should separate church and state (but politicians have been doing this for decades in order to fight against abortion, as well as other controversial issues, so I’m not exactly surprised). They are intentionally invoking religion instead of science, which is where the debate should be held. Scientists may not agree when life begins, or how to define life, but surely God can, right?

They also refer to fetuses as slaves. When Colorado faced a similar personhood vote, this ad was used in the campaign:

I’m George Stevens and I’m a person. I was held as property as a child. Even before my birth I was called a slave in an America you wouldn’t recognize...But today in Colorado, there are still people called property – children – just like I was. And that America you thought you wouldn’t recognize is all around you and these children are being killed.  This November, vote “yes” on Amendment 62. Amendment 62 declares unborn children persons, not property. And that’s the America I fought for. So visit PersonhoodColorado.com and in November, vote “yes” on 62. It’s the right thing to do.

People in Mississippi are now using the exact same argument to get Amendment 26 passed. They are comparing fetuses, zygotes, and eggs to slaves. Freda M. Bush, at the Clarion Ledger, writes,

In our federal Constitution, my ancestors, who were brought to the United States as slaves, were recognized as 3/5 of a human person for voting representation. It was a great civil rights victory when the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, acknowledging the African American as a "whole" person, deserving the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The great civil rights injustice of our day is being levied against our innocent, unborn children. In the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, unborn human beings are not recognized as even 3/5 of a person, and can be killed at any stage of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever. Initiative 26 recognizes what we all know intuitively, scientifically and spiritually - that we are persons from the moment of our biologic beginnings, endowed by our Creator with the same inalienable rights.

Let's ignore for the moment that Dr. Bush's comment about abortions happening "at any stage of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever" is completely false, and stick to the slavery comparison. This analogy is ridiculous. Fetuses inside a womb cannot be compared to African slaves. Fertilized eggs cannot be compared to slaves. They are not individuals with thoughts, hopes or goals. And no matter what your definition of “life” is or when you feel it begins, it cannot be argued that pregnant women are like slave masters. In fact, if the amendment passes, women will be the slaves. They will be slaves to the government that is making the decisions for them, and to the unwanted children whose rights are being held as superior to their own.   

The Personhood website also mentions the Holocaust (another touchy subject). The site reads,

50 million children have died as a result of legalized abortion in the United States. There is no visible monument to their passing. No pictures of death and destruction to prick our consciences and bring these dark deeds into the light.

So, now women are the same as Nazis? Let’s remember, the Nazis were wiping out an entire race of people in order to create a superior race, and rid the world of what they saw as the “wrong” type of people. This is nothing like a woman getting an abortion (or using birth control).

Every woman who chooses, or even just considers, an abortion has a different reason. It’s a personal decision. It’s a difficult decision. It’s emotional. And the decision is made with life in mind. A life that the woman has planned for herself and wants to see through.

Women are not Nazis. Women are not slave owners. Women are not blasphemous sinners. Women are one half of the world’s population. Women are living, breathing, thinking humans who have the capability to make their own decisions about their bodies and their lives.

They should also have the legal right.