Debate Magazine

"Personhood" and "Life Begins at Conception" is NOT Scientifically Valid Someone Tell Congrerssman John Kline, Et Al

Posted on the 09 June 2014 by Doggone

How Republicans would LIKE Babies to Arrive
Courtesy of Washingtonwatch.com

H.R. 1091, The Life at Conception Act

H.R. 1091 would implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.
Thirty-seventh down the Washington Watch list of sponsors and co-sponsors, after Michele Bachmann and Colin Peterson from Minnesota, we see John Kline.
Erik Paulsen is conspicuously absent, which is surprising given his record of voting and/or supporting ALL anti-abortion legislation and legislators. Kline, Paulsen and of course bimbo misogynist Bachmann are all regular supporters of the extremistanti-abortion radical right that denies science. Pretty much ALL science, in favor of a fictional religious fantasy-land world and legislative view.
The life-at-conception/personhood notion is being pushed by the radical righties as if it were in fact legitimate science. We see that from Paul Ryan, we see that from Mark Rubio, and others. I would not be surprised to see the already extreme Republican party platform changed to reflect it in 2014. This is being pushed at the local, state and federal levels.
But it is NOT settled science, in fact it is not science at all. It is anti-science. There is zero scientific or medical support for life being defined as occurring at conception rather than later; personhood is anti-science; claims for personhood are unscientific. It is in fact quite common for zygotes NOT to implant naturally. Implantation is as essential to reproduction as either sperm or egg, and blocking implantation is no more or less effective as legitimate contraception than blocking fertilization.
Back in January 2013, the MCCL anti-abortion group noted this, at a St. Paul rally:
MCCL announced its 2013 legislative agenda, which calls upon lawmakers to ban taxpayer funded abortions. Since the Minnesota Supreme Court’s 1995 Doe v. Gomez decision requiring taxpayers to fund abortions, the state has spent more than $18 million to pay for 62,000 abortions, even though the vast majority of Minnesotans are opposed to taxpayer funded abortions.
“The State of Minnesota pays for abortions and it is time to stop it,” said MCCL Executive Committee member Cathy Blaeser. “This year we are calling again for the Legislature to ban taxpayer funded abortions!”
A total of 59 state legislators attended the March for Life and were introduced by MCCL as the crowd applauded.
Minnesota’s pro-life Congressional delegation was in Washington, D.C., today, but each of them sent greetings to the crowd. “I believe life begins at conception,” wrote Congressman John Kline. “Accordingly, I believe taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund abortion or support groups who provide such services.” He has cosponsored a bill to ban federal funding of abortion providers.
“Nothing is more important than life and we need to use our votes and our voices and our energy and our faith and our friendships to protect the primacy of life,” said Congressman Erik Paulsen.
Back in April in the STrib, political writer Robin Marty noted that the Franken challengers also all support personhood, which is not particularly popular here in traditionally blue MN -- or even in red states.
"...Rachel Stassen-Berger’s recent report from a GOP debate in St. Louis Park, and learning that the potential party nominees have decided that they are publicly supporting “personhood” as a campaign plank.
For those who may have missed it during the last six years that the “personhood” movement has taken off, backers believe that the only way to end abortion is to grant full, legal rights and protections to life at the moment in which sperm meets egg, and to define that still-unimplanted zygote traveling through the fallopian tube as a “baby” that cannot be harmed.
It is a rigid, unscientific definition of pregnancy that the American Congress of Gynecologists and Obstetricians and the vast majority of doctors reject (especially since 50 percent of all fertilized eggs fail to implant and simply pass during a person’s menstrual cycle, according to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center). It’s also a definition that could jeopardize not only the right to both elective and medically necessary abortion but also hormonal birth control, emergency contraception, many forms of assisted reproductive technology for infertile couples and the ability to treat ectopic pregnancies without endangering a person’s future fertility. (my emphasis added - DG)
“Personhood” supporters claim the problem is that the public just doesn’t understand their initiative. Actually, the public understands it just fine. The problem for “personhood” proponents is that most people really do want to be able to have sex without fear of becoming pregnant every time they have intercourse, and birth control allows that to happen. Most people want to be able to ensure that if an embryo implants in the fallopian tube and not in the uterus, they can take medication to remove it, rather than have an invasive surgery to remove the tube and harm future fertility — all because any other option is purposefully “murdering” a baby. They want to be able to reach out to a doctor for assistance in creating their own families by using in vitro fertilization so that they can be pregnant and carry their own child, rather than adopting. They understand that “personhood” isn’t just about ending abortion but about changing the entirety of the relationship between doctor and patient, between two spouses, and between parent and child, to a rigid definition of health care, pregnancy and family.
Congressman John Kline is as much an extremist as the clowns he consorts with like Todd 'legitimate rape' Akin; he needs to go. He can take Erik Paulsen with him. Fortunately Bachmann is already on her way out the door to oblivion.

It is not in the interest of the state or the nation to have idiots in Congress pushing extreme agendas that are scientifically false. These fools might as well believe the stork brings babies, or they are found under cabbage leaves in the garden.  They clearly are attempting to return to olden days of old wives tales and other wilful ignorance.

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