(Image Source: SouthernEcho.org)


BY MILA MIMICA

ANCHOR BLAKE HANSON

Abortions, infertility treatments and some forms of birth control pills may become a thing of the past for residents of one state. According to Fox News...  

“An amendment on Tuesday’s ballot in Mississippi posing this question: when is a person a human being? It’s a vote getting national attention because if passed, it would make abortion and some forms of birth control illegal.”

Keith Mason, president of Personhood USA told CNN it’s imperative to give “personhood” to fertilized eggs through Mississippi’s Proposition 26.

“What we do know is that if we don’t recognize the personhood of all human beings, we will continue to see the destruction of so many every year through abortion, through the various ways of the biotechnology field.”

A blogger for the New Jersey Star-Ledger explains the implications of the amendment.

“Obviously, that would mean no abortions — even in the case of rape, incest, and possibly ectopic or other risky pregnancies. But the implications don't stop there. A woman using an IUD? The morning after pill? Any contraceptive preventing the egg's implantation? A murderer.”

In an editorial for the Washington Post, Susan Jacoby says the law is crossing the line between religion and medical care.

“It would allow religious interference with all medical care involving the female reproductive system. The anti-abortion movement has never been just about abortion. It has always been about the desire of certain religions to control women’s bodies and lives.”

But according to the LA Times, supporters of the amendment say the new provisions wouldn’t meddle with medical care as much as everyone thinks.

“The initiative, proponents say, would not ban in vitro fertilization per se, only the destruction of unused embryos. Doctors, they say, would not be prevented from saving the life of a woman during a problematic pregnancy. And they promise that ‘most forms’ of birth control pills would not be banned.”

Personhood USA has made similar proposals in Colorado in 2008 and 2010, but both were voted down.