With the anti-abortion movements’ help, everyone else in the country may get a chance to weaken the Christian right’s power for a long, long time.
Oklahoma is about to be the first state where the “personhood amendment” is going to pass, setting the stage for the law to go to the Supreme Court. The right is counting on a Roberts Supreme Court, along with a 5 person Conservative majority, to usher in the overturning of Roe V. Wade. But before that happens, America will get to decide whether we’re going to be governed by the Christian Bible or basic human rights.
This is the leading edge of a slippery slope back to the 1950′s America for which old white men and Rick Santorum are nostalgic. The Oklahoma personhood bill declares life begins at conception and provides embryos and fetuses with “all the rights, privileges, and immunities” of other citizens. Anything anyone does to interfere with that – causing the death of the “person” – would constitute murder. And there are a myriad of other legal ramifications:
The Senate approved the bill which some say is an attempt to outlaw or restrict abortion rights but it also has unintended consequences, according to the mother of 5-year-old Gavin Gayanich.
“We did several years of fertility treatment to get him. I feel like I won the lottery every day. I wake up every morning and this is what I have because of in vitro fertilization and this bill will prevent us from getting another child,” Julie Gayanich said.
Representative Mike Reynolds said Oklahomans are looking for clarity on this issue.
“You couldn’t change the language to say that life begins at conception except in the case of rape. That doesn’t make any sense,” Reynolds said.
via Personhood Amendment Passes In Oklahoma Senate – News9.com – Oklahoma City, OK
There are two bills in Oklahoma: the one that passed the Senate on a vote of 34-8, and the one that the House has not yet passed. The House bill, in addition to doing everything the Senate bill does, bans birth control choices like Plan B and fertility procedures such as in vitro fertilization that may result in the destruction of fertilized eggs (think of Octomom choosing not to have all 8 fertilized embryos transferred to her uterus). Additionally, it allows NO exception in cases of rape or incest. In Oklahoma, if your father, uncle or brother rapes you, or you are a coed at Oral Roberts University who is the victim of a date rape, the House bill requires that you bear the fruit of that attack for nine months until it is born. That means through morning sickness, prenatal check-ups, the first visible baby bump and the inquiries of friends and neighbors and family members . . . I am so sorry.
And it’s not just Oklahoma. Personhood bills are currently working their way through the legislatures of Iowa, North Dakota, Montana, and Texas.
It’s not about being pro-life. There can be an honest disagreement about defining the moment or event when life begins. These bills are not restricted to defining personhood as beginning at conception instead of at birth. It’s about women’s rights to govern the sanctity of your own bodies – basic human rights. This may be the most hypocritical issue of the Right: one of the main tenets of the GOP is keeping government out of our lives. Yet when it comes to reproductive rights they want to be right in the bedroom. (Now would be a good time to read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.)
If this were about preventing abortion, Rick Santorum, California Rep. Darrell Issa, all the Republican presidential candidates and the nine clerics – all men, one for each month of pregnancy – who testified about how against their principles it is to require them to provide contraception – these people would be the foremost advocates of contraception and sex education, because those two things prevent pregnancy. But they oppose contraception and sex education. These men (and, oddly, some women) are not content to forbid abortion: they also will forbid the best ways for sexually active women to prevent abortion: contraception and sex education. If you do have sex – even if it is against your will – they want you to take your chances and bear the consequences. What?? The hell??
As an aside, there is another common way for sexually active people to avoid unwanted pregnancy and consequent abortions: gay sex. I don’t think I have to explain the right’s position on gay sex. But someone should remind the presidential candidates and clerics that sex between men, and sex between women, is entirely abortion-free (assisted reproductive technologies excepted).
I think we can count on the right not to be able to paint themselves out of this corner. Rick Santorum is currently leading in the polls, and that’s a good thing. Using the Christian Bible to govern our country may resonate with the GOP base, but it’s very likely to turn off everyone else. Even Mitt Romney the Waffle King can’t afford to lose the Christian vote. If GOP leaders come to their senses, they’ll tell the personhood movement to pipe down but be assured that the GOP will take care of them. How many pro-lifers (especially women, who are overwhelmingly saddled with the responsibility of birth control) will think going back to the rhythm method is a great idea? In the privacy of the voting booth, even Mississipi, the state with the highest percentage of Protestant Christians, at 81% (plus 6% Catholics) according to a recent Gallup poll, resoundingly rejected the personhood law. (Mississippi also has the nation’s lowest percentage of Atheists and Agnostics at 5.8%.)
It will take a fight, and if progressives and women’s rights supporters can get the word out, we can finally have the basic human rights argument that this country needs to have: the Christian Bible or the Constitution. With which will the political center of the country stand?
If we let the GOP hang themselves, I’m betting – and hoping – this is the issue they’ll do it with. And that just may break the Christian right’s stranglehold on our country for a long time to come.
Let us pray.
By Jack Jamison and John McAndrew, uncommontary.com.
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