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My son was stillborn 3 days prior to his due date. By all current definitions based on viability, he was a person unto himself. Despite all of that, we were not able to write his information on our tax returns because he was considered by our government to never have lived/existed.
Yet, Conner Peterson (Laci & Scott's son) was given the full protection of the law (the same law which refused to acknowledge my son) and Scott was charged with a double murder.
I've been trying for the past few years to get one politician to explain that to me: Why must a pregnant mother be touched by violence before the child she carries be granted personhood? No one has an answer for me, except one republican guy attempted to explain it through "God's Will." (i.e., it was God's will that my son not survive while the others suffered due to human intervention)
I've spent a great deal of time thinking about the whole "personhood" debate. I believe the republicans, in their zeal to appease their religious voting base, haven't given much thought at all to the Pandora's box in front of them. Once personhood is granted to *any* fetus, the ripple effect throughout our current system will be massive. I know I will personally be amending my tax returns to claim each and every child I've lost through the years -- and I know other moms of miscarriage and stillbirth who are angry/frustrated enough to do the same. What will happen to "birth certificates"? The only logical outcome would be "Certificates of Life" which would also pave the way to "Certificates of Potential Life".
What will happen to the woman who attends a party before she is aware she is pregnant and consumes alcohol and/or nicotine? Will the state be able to file charges on behalf of the fetus? What about the woman who stops prenatal vitamins because they make her ill? Or the couple who continues to have sexual relations against doctor's orders? Speaking of doctors, what about those who provide services (such as early amnio) which lead to the unintended demise of the pregnancy?
There are a myriad of such questions which will need to be answered in the courts -- local, state, federal, civil, criminal and more. Yet more proof that republicans don't think before they act & that republicans will do and say anything to keep their voters in lockstep.
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