3852
(2 votes, average 3.00 out of 5)
Written by Louis Weisberg, Staff writer
Nov 11, 2011
A fertilized human egg would gain legal recognition as a “person” in Wisconsin under a measure proposed by state Rep. André Jacque, R-Bellevue.
The measure – LRB 2859/1 – seeks to amend the state’s Constitution “to apply personhood rights to preborn children at all stages of development,” according to a press release from Pro-Life Wisconsin. Supporters of the proposal believe it would prompt a legal challenge that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a legal right to abortion.
But the broadly worded measure would also make the use of many forms of contraception a crime, including birth-control pills and IUDs, according to women’s health advocates.
“Because there is no test for a fertilized egg, you can’t say definitively that the pill and the IUD do not prevent the transplantation of a fertilized egg,” said Nicole Safar, legal and policy analyst for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Without the availability of such a test, the law could be interpreted to apply to those forms of birth control, she explained.
According to Safar, condoms would remain legal under the law.
Voters in Mississippi rejected a similar proposal on Nov. 8, and Coloradans voted one down in 2008 and 2010. But Personhood USA, the Colorado-based group behind the so-called “personhood” initiative, is determined to put it on ballots in other Bible Belt states as well as in Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada and California in 2012.
So far, the measure has gained little traction in Madison since Jacque, who also opposes wind energy, introduced it. Despite Pro-Life Wisconsin’s support, the state’s other leading anti-choice group, Wisconsin Right to Life, opposes it. The disagreement over the initiative stems from differing legal interpretations rather than the measure’s goal. Both groups want to make abortion a crime in any situation, even when the mother’s life is at stake.
Also supporting the personhood initiative is Julaine Appling, executive director of the group Wisconsin Family Action. Although Appling is best known for her anti-gay activism, she also lobbies against reproductive and contraceptive choice.
Appling, a middle-aged woman who has never married, lives with her longtime companion and co-worker Diane Westphal in a home the couple owns together in Watertown.
Safar said Appling along with staffers from Pro-Life Wisconsin have been calling on Republican lawmakers for several weeks asking them to sign on as co-sponsors of the personhood initiative. Although the current number of co-sponsors is unknown, Safar predicted the measure would move forward under the current Republican leadership.
“We have seen other kind of attacks on birth control before, but nothing this broad that would actually make birth control illegal,” Safar said. “This is about as far-reaching on the right as we’ve seen. It’s indicative of this new Republican Legislature this year. The governor defunded Planned Parenthood. It’s the first time that’s ever happened. We’ve always gotten money from both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past. What we’ve seen this year is more outrageous than anything we’ve ever seen.”
Planned Parenthood’s polling in the state shows support for a woman’s right to choose in some circumstances from every demographic group. “This is a big-time losing issue for (Republicans),” Safar said.
Even in Mississippi, perhaps the most far-right state in the nation, 55 percent of voters rejected the initiative on Nov. 8.
Keith Mason, the founder of Personhood USA blamed his failure in Mississippi on “misconceptions and lies” generated by Planned Parenthood that “created a lot of confusion.”
The measure divided the medical and religious communities in Mississippi and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support.
Opponents in Mississippi said supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest.
Mississippian Amy Brunson told The Associated Press she voted against the measure, in part because she has been raped. She also has friends and family members who had children through in vitro fertilization, and she said the law as written would make that process illegal, because it can result in the death of an egg.
"The lines are so unclear on what may or may not happen. I think there are circumstances beyond everybody's control that can't be regulated through an amendment," said Brunson, a 36-year-old dog trainer and theater production assistant from Jackson.
Mississippi already has tough abortion regulations, and only one clinic where the procedures are performed, making it a fitting venue for a national movement to get abortion bans into state constitutions.
The state’s largest Christian denomination, the Mississippi Baptist Convention, backed the proposal through its lobbying arm, the Christian Action Commission.
"We mourn with heaven tonight over the loss of Initiative 26, which would have provided the hope of life for thousands of God’s unborn babies in Mississippi," said the commission's director, the Rev. Jimmy Porter. “Instead the unborn in Mississippi will continue to be led down on a path of destruction to horrible deaths both inside their mothers and in laboratories.”
The bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi and the General Conference of the United Methodist Church opposed the initiative.
Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, a church traditionally against abortion, issued a statement neither supporting nor opposing the initiative. The Mississippi State Medical Association took a similar step, while other medical groups opposed it.
