It’s official. I dropped off our ballots this morning. We voted and it felt good.
The Colorado State ballot has an amendment that CAN NOT PASS. Amendment 48 is a scary attempt to define “personhood” from the moment of conception. All rights, therefore, would be afforded to this person from that moment. It begs several questions:
First: Do women who find out they are pregnant and then have a natural miscarriage undergo investigations for murder?? How do we expect to pay for this dramatic increase in homocide investigations nationwide?? Are our courts, district attorneys, police detectives, etc. staffed for this?
Second: Do women need to apply for TWO passports if traveling out of the country while pregnant??
Third: If ”inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law” apply to the human “person” from the moment of conception, is the legality of birth obsolete?? If so, shall we create “Conception Certificates” rather than “Birth Certificates”?? Who will pay to update the computer systems? Must a woman apply for a “Conception Certificate” when she purchases a pregnancy test? Or will her physician be required to notify the government when her urine sample comes back positive for increased hormone levels??
OH, wait … my third point wouldn’t necessarily apply to a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered conceived “person”. Our GLBT neighbors aren’t afforded equal inalienable rights as living, breathing, working, tax-paying adults! My mistake, my mistake.
dianahsieh said
Thank you for your opposition to Amendment 48!
You might be interested in this web site outlining the case against Amendment 48:
http://www.ColoradoVoteNo48.com
We discuss the issue in greater detail in an issue paper published by the Coalition for Secular Government — “Amendment 48 Is Anti-Life: Why It Matters That a Fertilized Egg Is Not a Person” — by Ari Armstrong and myself. It’s available at:
http://www.seculargovernment.us/docs/a48.pdf
We discuss some of the serious implications of this proposed amendment, such as:
* Amendment 48 would make abortion first-degree murder, except perhaps to save the woman’s life. First-degree murder is defined in Colorado law as deliberately causing the death of a “person,” a crime punished by life in prison or the death penalty. So women and their doctors would be punished with the severest possible penalty under law for terminating a pregnancy — even in cases of rape, incest, and fetal deformity.
* Amendment 48 would ban any form of birth control that might sometimes prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus — including the birth control pill, morning-after pill, and IUD. The result would be many more unintended pregnancies and unwanted children in Colorado.
* Amendment 48 would ban in vitro fertilization because the process usually creates more fertilized eggs than can be safely implanted in the womb. So every year, hundreds of Colorado couples would be denied the joy of a child of their own.
Our paper also develops a strong defense of abortion rights — not based on vague appeals to “choice” or “privacy” — but on the fact that neither an embryo nor fetus qualifies as a person with a right to life.
An embryo or fetus is wholly dependent on the woman for its basic life-functions. It goes where she goes, eats what she eats, and breathes what she breathes. It lives as an extension of her body, contained within and dependent on her for its survival. It is only a potential person, not an actual person.
That situation changes radically at birth. The newborn baby exists as a distinct organism, separate from his mother. Although still very needy, he lives his own life. He is a person, and his life must be protected as a matter of right.
So, we argue, when a woman chooses to terminate a pregnancy she does not violate the rights of any person. Instead, she is properly exercising her own rights over her own body in pursuit of her own happiness. Moreover, in most cases, she is acting morally and responsibly by doing so.
Again, the URL for the paper is:
http://www.seculargovernment.us/docs/a48.pdf
The sad fact is that Amendment 48 is based on sectarian religious dogma, not objective science or philosophy. It is a blatant attempt to impose theocracy in America. That’s definitely a scary thought.
Thanks again for speaking up about it — and my apologies for writing such a huge comment.
Diana Hsieh
Founder, Coalition for Secular Government
http://www.seculargovernment.us
richard myers said
I voted no on 48.
I’m also concerned about Amendment 47, since it is aimed at working people. Here is some info:
http://www.voteno47.com
And, a site with info about Amendments 47, 49, and 54:
http://www.protectcoloradosfuture.org/