Activists in Colorado are pushing forward an amendment to the state Constitution that would extend constitutional human rights to all -- or, rather, legally bend the definition of what it means to be a fully realized human being. The proposed amendment rules fertilized eggs as deserving of inalienable human rights --including due process and equality of justice -- under the state Constitution. "Whatever rights and liberties and duties and responsibilities are guaranteed under the Constitution or other state laws would flow to that life," Michael J. Norton, a lawyer representing the amendment's supporters, told the New York Times. Norton added that while the measure doesn't explicitly mention abortion, it would be defined as "the destruction of a person." In other words: murder.
It's unlikely the amendment -- which has "the most sweeping language in the nation about the rights of the unborn," reports the Times -- would stop at criminalizing abortion. Deputy director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, Toni Panettahe, suggests that its wording could be stretched to support legal challenges to birth control -- especially oral contraceptives, which make the uterus unwelcoming to an egg.
The measure encountered a roadblock last week when its wording was challenged in the Colorado Supreme Court, only to be ushered right along on its journey to the 2008 ballot.
Happy Monday!
The abortion doctor
Susan Wicklund has received death threats and worn a bulletproof vest to work. But what really scares her, she writes in "This Common Secret," is the war on reproductive rights.
By Eryn Loeb, Salon
How abortion changed the world
From a sketchy underground doctor to the American fight against communism, a look at the unlikely forces that helped spread global family planning.
By Michelle Goldberg, Salon
What's wrong with the new pro-lifers
The progressive anti-abortion movement still doesn't truly value the life and identity of the mother.
By Frances Kissling, Salon
Is there a next generation of abortion providers?
As if the threat of violence and divisive politics weren't enough, getting trained is almost impossible.
By Kate Harding, Salon
When abortion was a crime
Reagan, an assistant professor of history, medicine and women's studies at the University of Illinois, dedicates her disturbing work on abortion in America before Roe v. Wade to "the lives of... women who died trying to control their reproduction."
The abortion debate
An incredibly interesting debate that looks at both the pros and cons of abortion from a secularist viewpoint.
“Egg-as-a-Person” Initiative on the 2010 Ballot in Colorado
My Saturday at the abortion clinic
Secular Sunday School: Blasphemy Laws
Weed: Shall Ye Be California's Savior? 