Mississippi to vote on giving constitutional rights to unborn fetuses

Maybe everyone already knows about this, but I don't have a uterus so the first time I heard about it was this afternoon. This election season the great state of Mississippi will vote on Proposition 26 (a.k.a., the "Personhood Ammendment"). An affirmative on this amendment means that you want to give fertilized fetuses constitutional rights. Here's the rub:

The amendment would effectively ban not only abortion, but other far less controversial things like morning-after pills, the IUD, and in-vitro fertilization.

This amendment is a smart play by "pro-lifers."¹ In one fell swoop it manages to make abortion illegal (though not explicitly) and it makes otherwise non-controversial forms of birth control, such as those that prevent fertilization, very controversial. What's worse? It has a better than average chance of passing...

What's next? Granting voting rights to the twinkle in your eye?

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¹ The first smart play on their part, IMHO, was to claim the term "pro-life," making anyone who opposes them anti-life or pro-death. Do you know anyone who is really either of these?.

Ed

Ed enjoys all forms of entertainment and has an unnatural love for quantitative methodology. He operates out of a basement in Northern Virginia (@edomaniac).

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