HR552 would define ESCR, SCNT as murder

[rayilynlee <rayilynlee@xxxxxxx>]

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             Tuesday, December 27 2005 @ 05:55 AM PST 
             
            Reproductive Rights: U.S. House Bill Would Legally Define Abortion 
As Murder     
                  Monday, December 26 2005 @ 01:43 PM PST
                  Contributed by: Anonymous
                  Views: 95 
                   

                  A bill that is currently before Congress, tilted the "Right 
to Life Act" (HR552) would extend 14th Amendment protections and "personhood" 
status to a developing fetus, using the due process clause of the 14th 
Amendment, in order to criminalize abortion -- and even some forms of 
contraception -- as murder. 



                  Representative Dincan Hunter of California is sponsoring the 
bill. 

                  According to the website, http://www.righttolifeact.org, the 
bill would effectively overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade by 
"establishing personhood." 

                  From the site: 

                  Would this legislation actually overturn Roe v. Wade? 

                  Yes, it would. 

                  Few people realize that Roe v. Wade shows us the way to its 
own downfall. The key passage, written by the author of the majority opinion, 
Justice Harry Blackmun, states in unequivocal terms: "If personhood is 
established, the case for legalized abortion collapses, for the fetus' right to 
life would be guaranteed by the 14th Amendment." (Roe v. Wade, Majority 
Decision, Section IX) 

                  Yet this definition exists nowhere in legal precendent, 
philosophy, practice or social custom. While some philosophers and scientists 
may debate the question of life (ie. is a virus alive?), there is no legitimate 
or rational challenge to the long held definition of "person" as one who has 
been born, is or has been sentient and thus interacted in one form or another 
with other "persons." 

                  A stillbirth is not a person. A bundle of cells is not a 
person. One has only to recall how Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum brought 
home his wife's 20-week old miscarriage and instructed his children to sing, 
cuddle and hug it to get a good look at the warped mindset behind this. 

                  In line with this view, HR552 defines a person as: "each and 
every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but 
not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which 
an individual member of the human species comes into being." 

                  This definition blows the door wide open and could possibly 
lead to a ban on all forms of contraception, including spermacide, condoms, 
diaphragms and even literature advocating contraception, the right to an 
abortion or reproductive freedom. Such laws were used that way as recently as 
sixty to eighty years ago. 

                  The real question beyond this is the effect it would have 
were it to pass. Women who have been faced with the difficult and traumatic 
experience of being pregnant and poor, young, socially ostracized, abused or 
otherwise physically and mentally coerced into becoming pregnant and going to 
term would be criminally liable for murder charges, as would any physician who 
aided them. 

                  Nor would this necessarily be limited to prosecution of women 
after the bill's passage; it could effectively be applied retroactively by 
combing through previously confidential medical records, a move which then 
Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted in 2002 when seeking access for the 
Justice department into confidential medical records. 

                  HR552 is yet another example of religious fundamentalists 
trying to repress the freedom of others in deciding what is best for themselves 
and their bodies. In the site's FAQ, the last questions is "What can I do to 
help?" The response? 

                  "If you are religious, you should pray to end abortion. 
Nothing is impossible with God." 

                  The full text is available at 
http://www.righttolifeact.org/html/home.html including a list of sponsors and 
co-sponsors of the bill. 

                  Story by Pete Spina.
                 



                 
           
           
                        
                         
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