Mississippi Personhood Amendment

[derien]

Signal boosting - ETA: in case there's any confusion, I did not write any of the text below.
Originally posted by old_blueeyes at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Originally posted by twbasketcase at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Originally posted by gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, 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 ( http://www.jacksonwomenshealth.com/ ) 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 ( http://www.wakeupmississippi.org ) 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

[revyrie.livejournal.com]

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages.

I can't see how this could be true. Doesn't birth control prevent eggs from being fertilized in the first place?

Putting aside my moral belief that killing anyone, no matter what their age, is wrong.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if there are other riders on this amendment which affect birth control.

I'm also not sure how you could criminalize a miscarriage - that would be abortion by God, so if they want to bring God to court, good luck. :)

[derien.livejournal.com]

I may have found part of the answer to that - unfortunately the actual Yes on 26 campaign seems to have taken down the page on which they make this actual statement. Or it never existed, it's hard to tell - this is the internets. But I found the following http://parentsagainstms26.com/ivf-faq/#bcp :

The Yes on 26 campaign asserts that they oppose hormonal contraceptives which can prevent implantation. This doesn’t just mean the morning-after pill — it means ALL birth control pills, including the ones currently taken by tens of thousands of Mississippi women. It also means IUDs, including the Mirena IUD (hormonal) and Paragard (non-hormonal).

No form of oral contraceptive is 100% reliable at preventing ovulation, even when taken exactly according to directions. All birth control pills change the lining of the uterus so that, if you happen to ovulate, a fertilized egg is unlikely to implant and develop. Therefore, the passage of MS 26 would mean that women will be unable to use birth control pills or IUDs. Contraceptive choices will be limited to barrier methods such as condoms and diaphragms.

Also, many Mississippi women take hormonal contraceptives to treat menstrual problems such as PCOS and endometriosis. Any measure which might restrict available contraceptive choices threatens these women’s ability to effectively treat their medical conditions.

I would be in that last group, if I lived in MS, and my period is way too erratic and, er... messy if I don't have the pill. (yeah, you don't even want to hear the details. it's happened more than once. it could be what I would call a public health hazard.)