Personhood ... For Colorado Women

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

The “personhood” people just can’t take no for an answer, can they?

The Daily Beast’s Abigail Pesta reports that once again, Personhood Colorado is collecting signatures to give fertilized eggs all of the rights you and I enjoy as fully formed human beings. Keep in mind that Coloradoans already said “heck no” twice – once in 2008 and again in 2010. Only 27 percent and 30 percent voted in favor of the ballot measures, respectively.

The “personhood” drive is one of the more ridiculous ways antichoice organizations are trying to overturn Roe v. Wade – and make motherhood mandatory. “Personhood” is so radical, in fact, that some "pro-life" groups have tried to distance themselves when “personhood” has shown up on state ballots.

So what would “personhood” do? A whole lot of things most voters don’t like:

• Ban abortion in ALL CASES – including rape, incest, when a woman’s life is threatened or when a pregnancy is not viable. In other words, the fetus will die upon birth, but the mom-to-be has to carry it for nine months beforehand anyway. If that isn’t torture, I don’t know what is.
• Ban the most effective forms of contraception, including birth control pills, hormonal implants and IUDs. Way to increase unplanned pregnancies and abortions, pro-lifers!
• Place burdensome restrictions on families who hope to have a child through in vitro fertilization. It’s funny how conservatives always decry unnecessary regulations – until they don’t.
• Place more burdensome (job-killing!) regulations on stem cell research. You know, the kind of research scientists are doing to cure Parkinson’s and other really nasty diseases.
• Potentially criminalize miscarriages. I doubt anyone wants to intentionally criminalize miscarriages. But in this blog post, Joe Center explains how a woman could be charged with a crime if her pregnancy ends and she lives in a state with a "personhood" amendment. Sound far-fetched? Then you haven’t heard of Christine Taylor, Amanda Kimbrough or Bei Bei Shuai.

Coloradoans prefer that humans enjoy human rights. (Flickr)

“Personhood” could have all sorts of less serious unintended consequences, too. Would Colorado women be eligible for a child tax exemption the moment the pregnancy test read “positive?” Could they use carpool lanes when they’re driving alone? Could movie theaters charge them admission for two? Could women sue their fetus for distress after weeks of unrelenting heartburn and nausea? If the pregnancy was unintended, could women sue their fetus for trespassing? No wonder “personhood” has failed everywhere it’s been tried. 

Colorado voters prefer that their mothers, daughters, sisters and wives enjoy more human rights than a fertilized egg. I couldn't agree with them more.

Family Planning Needed Here, Too!

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of a Grist fangirl. I really like their straightforward take on important environmental issues of our time.

Children are our future. Let's leave them a nice planet. (JD Hancock/Flickr)

I was especially happy to see Grist weigh in on contraception in the wake of last week’s London Summit on Family Planning. Their take: It’s not just developing countries that lack birth control access:  

If so many young women … are getting pregnant accidentally, then we as a country are doing something really wrong — doing lots of things wrong, actually. Sex ed in our schools is too often crappy or nonexistent. Reliable birth control can be hard to get ahold of and afford. Our whole culture is at once saturated with sex and at the same time afraid of having of having honest conversations about it. Add all that up and the result is that almost half of the nation’s 6 million-plus pregnancies each year are unintended.

Imagine if it became normal for young women in America, when they become sexually active, to start using a long-acting form a contraception — an IUD (they’re making a comeback!) or a patch or a ring or a shot, something you don’t have to think about every day — until/unless they decide they want to have kids. (Yes, they should still use condoms too.) Obama’s healthcare act will help make this more achievable; starting this August, most insurance plans will be required to cover the full cost of birth control. But it’ll take more than changing the rules; we need to change the culture too.

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!!

Currently, there are 222 million women in developing countries who want to delay or end childbearing but who don’t have modern, appropriate contraception. It’s a HUGE problem – for the women, their families, their nations, and the planet. But this Grist post makes an important point – women right here, in our own communities and neighborhoods, also lack access to contraception. That access is crucial if women are able to choose their own futures.

(That’s one of the reasons that I, personally, was so happy about Obama Administration’s rule on contraception, but that’s a post for another time.)

One issue Grist didn’t mention: Those millions of (unintended) American kids also have a big impact on our environment. Americans produce more trash per person than anyone else on Earth. We also use more energy per person than anyone else. We’re No. 1! We’re No. 1!

P.S. No, I don’t hate children. I have seven nieces and nephews under age 6 whom I adore. I just want the best possible life for all kids for generations to come, and that won’t happen if we run out of resources first.