Fetal personhood laws aim to establish that all life begins at conception, and they are endowed with the same rights as a newborn. Anything that impacts that can be criminalized.
Many states have passed bills enshrining fetal personhood rights- Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina. More than a dozen states are hoping to pass such bills in the near future.
Keri Lake, Amy Coney Barrett, Nikki Haley, speaker of the house, Mike Johnson and many other politicians have made clear they would fight to enact laws that make any attempt at preventing conception illegal, triggering criminal consequences.
So it’s no surprise the Alabama high court just ruled that frozen embryos are children.
As a result, invitro fertilization, the opportunity and last resort for many couples to have a family is now considered murder when an embryo doesn’t implant and result in a pregnancy.
It’s the same technology that allowed former Vice President Pence and former President Barack Obama to have children.
125 House Republicans have backed a bill demanding a federal mandate claiming life begins at conception. That means anything that prevents it:
Condoms
Diaphragms
Birth control pills
Intrauterine devices
Invitro fertilization
can all be outlawed. Soon the Supreme Court will decide if Mifepristone, based on the archaic 1873 Comstock Act stating all contraception is obscene, may be next. It’s been available and FDA approved for 20 years. It’s a medication that has been used safely by over 50% of women in the U.S. and 75% of women in 100 countries to end their pregnancies, in the privacy of their own room. It carries less risks than aspirin, Tylenol, penicillin or Viagra.
Whats next?
Justice Alito made it clear in his majority opinion when Roe v Wade was overturned- all the rights previously interpreted under the protections of the 14th Amendment are at risk. He even referenced “the great 17th century Judge Sir Mathew Hale” who sentenced “witches” to death and advocated for a husband’s right to rape his wife.
Next is,
No fault divorce.
Same sex marriages.
“Recreational sex.”
All birth control options.
And whether Justice Thomas agrees or not, racially mixed marriages.
The staying at home daughters movement is already having nationwide meetings to promote getting back to a, “healthier and stress-free life as God intended.”
Meaning girls should stop worrying their pretty little heads about things like work outside the home and get back to having large families and taking care of kids and husbands.
Birth control single handedly gave women control over when and if they got pregnant. Abortion rights gave us the control to say no to a pregnancy, for any reason. Both empowered women as never before.
Sounds a lot like keeping us barefoot and pregnant.
And now married.
Several states actually have laws saying you can’t get divorced once you’re pregnant. I’m ashamed to say here in Arizona as well as Texas, Arkansas and recently Missouri, all abortions are effectively banned, so women’s bodies are already state property. Now, once pregnant, we are our husband’s property.
Is this really where we’ve come in the 21st century?
Our great, great grandmothers risked everything to give us the right to control our bodies, own property, vote, protect our children from being abused and used in sweat shops, stop back-alley abortions or use a hangar, and finally end a time when women could be raped and abused by their husbands.
These are the shoulders we stood on, the limbs we stressed to the point of breaking. They won the rights we are now losing.
Is this the fate we want to doom all our daughters, nieces, aunts, friends, wives, grandchildren to? A future without choice?
I am the woman, the physician, the mother I am today because of the brave actions of those incredible women and their unwillingness to stay subjugated.
Now, it’s our turn.
-https://www.congress.gov/
-https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/questions-and-answers-mifepristone-medical-termination-pregnancy-through-ten-weeks-gestation#:~:text=Is%20it%20safe%20to%20use,Mitigation%20Strategy%20(REMS)%20Program.
-https://www.businessinsider.com/house-republicans-life-at-conception-ivf-exception-2024-2
-https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a21345667/stay-at-home-daughters-christian-patriarchy/
-https://theintercept.com/2022/06/24/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court-14th-amendment/
-https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/13/texas-personhood-laws-abortion-law/
-https://www.npr.org/2023/08/11/1193393737/4-states-are-using-fetal-personhood-to-put-women-behind-bars
-https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/comstock-act-transform-abortion-debate-180982363/
-https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/4488919-pregnant-women-cant-get-divorced-in-missouri-heres-why/#:~:text=(WDAF)%20%E2%80%93%20As%20it%20stands,Texas%2C%20Arizona%2C%20and%20Arkansas.