whatNOW Winter 2011 e-Newsletter

Mississippi Personhood Amendment Fails,
Still There is Persecution in Pregnancy

By Kara Wallis   |   Breaking: New York City Woman Arrested for Self-Abortion

This last November the people of Mississippi thankfully voted down I.26, also known as the Personhood Amendment. The amendment set out to define a fertilized egg as a "person," giving fertilized eggs the same legal protections as every United States citizen. Its passage would have had widespread affects - potentially outlawing birth control and in vitro fertilization, and creating a legal minefield for pregnant women. But proponents of I.26 played down the legal and moral ramifications that personhood amendments would create, brushing them off as "liberal scare tactics."

However, women's rights advocates already know that that these types of fetal separatist philosophies-defining the fetus and woman as separate individuals with their own rights-are already used to prosecute pregnant women throughout the United States. There are currently hundreds of cases across the country where the rights of the fetus have been used to completely discard a woman's rights by manipulating the law to protect the fetus against the woman who carries it - even when the mother wishes to carry her pregnancy to term.

One of the first cases that called attention to this involved a Maryland woman who, facing a life threatening illness, refused to consent to a caesarean section in fear that she would not survive the surgery. Her doctors and the hospital obtained a court order to perform the invasive surgery for the "protection of the fetus," despite the woman's refusal. Both the woman and the baby did not survive the surgery. In this first case of its kind (1987), fetal separatist measures not only violated a woman's right to bodily integrity, but also usurped the woman's right to life.

In Alabama, a woman is currently being charged under a child endangerment statute for entering a meth lab while pregnant. The courts interpreted the word child to include a fetus, thereby making it a crime for any pregnant woman to simply be in a meth lab - a crime no other member of society could be charged for.

In Indiana, weeks after a failed suicide attempt, a mother gave birth to her child. Shortly after the birth, the child died of unknown causes. The mother is being held for homicide charges, despite there being no evidence that her suicide attempt while pregnant played any role in the death of her child.

In Mississippi, after giving birth to a healthy baby girl, a urine test proved that the mother had used illicit drugs while pregnant. Hospital workers called police enforcement and the mother was later arrested and charged for delivering drugs to a minor. The method of delivery? Umbilical cord.

These are but a few examples of the kinds of cases that are facing pregnant women all over the country. For drug-use, failure to seek prenatal care, refusing invasive surgery, using a midwife, accidentally falling down the stairs, or having an unexplained miscarriage, women have been thrown in jail, placed on house arrest, or even forced to undergo dangerous and invasive surgeries for the sake of the fetus' rights.

The residents of Mississippi shot down I.26 this year, with a majority of voters understanding that giving a fertilized egg personhood rights simply goes too far and would put women's lives in danger. Still, PersonhoodUSA, the Christian ministry behind personhood amendments, claims it has over a million signatures to continue to push these amendments across the country.

When we seek to legally enforce "fetal rights" by enacting amendments like I.26, we open the door to a whole host of dangers: If we give the government the mandate to protect the fetus as if it were a person, then all pregnant women are in jeopardy of having their fundamental rights eviscerated and undermined-even at the expense of their own lives. It's our role as pro-women advocates to educate others on the reality that these types of laws create for all pregnant women and their families, and to ensure that the health and lives of women-including pregnant women-remain paramount.

Learn more at National Advocates for Pregnant Women

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