rabidsamfan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rabidsamfan) wrote2011-10-11 06:59 pm
rabidsamfan) wrote2011-10-11 06:59 pm
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Mississippi Personhood Amendment
I'm pushing this on my LJ because I think it's important. Because when it comes right down to it, when faced with a fully grown woman and a fertilized egg, I can only say with confidence that one of them has a soul, and it isn't the egg. Two thousand years of discussion has never settled the question of when a potential life becomes ensouled. When it moves? But morning glories can move. When it can feel pain, the way the lowliest worm in the earth can feel pain? But a breathing, living woman, yes, her I'm sure of.
To me, the argument that "life begins at conception" meant to trump all other considerations -- is another way of saying that sperm are sacred -- that somehow they convey souls. And I can't see how anyone who understands what a "wet dream" is can believe that God wastes souls on bedsheets.
Even if I believed that an unsouled life begins at conception, I still would think that abortion and birth control are options which women should have access to. Because we make decisions about this life over that every time we sit down to eat. A fertilized egg is like a fertile seed -- yes, you might grow an oak, but you're far more likely to feed a squirrel. The incidence of miscarriages -- my grandmother had two, my mother one -- proves to me that pregnancy is not a guarantee.
And even if I did believe that souls begin at the moment of conception, I cannot conceive of a God so small that He would not receive the souls of innocents back into his care and would not hold them in the safety of his hands until another opportunity is granted to them.
And I'm not even going to go into the question of whether or not state constitutions are an appropriate place for this kind of argument. Unnuanced. Uncaring. How many women, who, like my mother and my grandmother never wanted to lose the child they carried, will find themselves criminals under these kinds of rules? How many women will die, or go blind, because of a pregnancy that their body cannot withstand? How many families will have the children they already love go hungry because the money won't stretch to feed one more?
Please, spread the word. This vote is coming up all too soon.
Originally posted by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment
Comments are disabled because I don't really want to start a fight. I just want you to think a little.
To me, the argument that "life begins at conception" meant to trump all other considerations -- is another way of saying that sperm are sacred -- that somehow they convey souls. And I can't see how anyone who understands what a "wet dream" is can believe that God wastes souls on bedsheets.
Even if I believed that an unsouled life begins at conception, I still would think that abortion and birth control are options which women should have access to. Because we make decisions about this life over that every time we sit down to eat. A fertilized egg is like a fertile seed -- yes, you might grow an oak, but you're far more likely to feed a squirrel. The incidence of miscarriages -- my grandmother had two, my mother one -- proves to me that pregnancy is not a guarantee.
And even if I did believe that souls begin at the moment of conception, I cannot conceive of a God so small that He would not receive the souls of innocents back into his care and would not hold them in the safety of his hands until another opportunity is granted to them.
And I'm not even going to go into the question of whether or not state constitutions are an appropriate place for this kind of argument. Unnuanced. Uncaring. How many women, who, like my mother and my grandmother never wanted to lose the child they carried, will find themselves criminals under these kinds of rules? How many women will die, or go blind, because of a pregnancy that their body cannot withstand? How many families will have the children they already love go hungry because the money won't stretch to feed one more?
Please, spread the word. This vote is coming up all too soon.
Originally posted by
gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood AmendmentOkay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.
Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.
Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.
Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.
What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.
The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.
So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.
If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.
What to do?
- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.
- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.
- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.
- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.
Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.
Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.
Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.
What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.
The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.
So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.
If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.
What to do?
- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.
- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.
- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.
- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.
Comments are disabled because I don't really want to start a fight. I just want you to think a little.