Mississippi Personhood Amendment

[gala_apples]

None of the text below is mine. It's the first time I've ever used the 'repost' button. It just seems intensely fucked up to me. I'm a Canadian, you all know that, so I guess technically it doesn't effect me. But it really, really does. My parents first attempt at a child resulted in a miscarriage, so my mom should be arrested? My female friends use birth control, they deserve criminal charges? I LOVE children. I do, I could happily work with toddlers for sixty years. But the idea of having one myself is revolting. There's not a doubt in my mind that if somehow I got impregnated I would abort. Immediately. I have the right to get unwanted cells out of my body, and so does everyone else.

So, for those that live in the States and can actually contact their politicians and make a stink, please do.



Originally posted by gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

Comments

[katelinmr.livejournal.com]

I surely hope that they won't pass that amendment! What if you get impregnated but you're mentally handicapped (but good enough to have sex) and can't take care of the child? Now we have birth control, but after this, if it gets through, we wouldn't have it, go back to the MIDDLE AGES, and have woman who can't take care of their children, causing the children (of of the 25 they'll have) serious harm, if not mental damage...

Just saying..

If we would'v had birth control sooner, there wouldn't have been so many incest babies to vote for this *growls*

Sorry this just REALLY gets me annoyed. BIG TIME

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

As a Canadian isn't it worrying in a way because Canadian conversative governments tend to have a habit of copying American policy?