29 October 2011 Here’s a real house of horrors

Cassi Creek:

          In today’s local newspaper was a feature column about a local church’s “Judgment House.”  This is an effort of proselyltization slightly disguised as a Halloween amusement.  The responsible preacher was interviewed and went into detail about how his program avoided really horrifying scenarios; seeking only to create more Christians by threatening them with Hell and eternal damnation. 

          To be fair, some of these church-sponsored houses are truly gory; stress all manner of murder and mayhem, finishing up by equating contraception and abortion with pre-meditated murder.  They intend to scare the people who might consider family planning, using morning after pills, and undergoing abortion.  They make no allowance for victims of rape, incest, or medical necessity to save the life of the woman in need of surgical abortion to prevent death by disease or disorder. 

          In today’s Washington Post, I found something that dwarfs these fright houses in intent and in malevolence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-an-anti-abortion-push-to-redefine-person-could-wind-up-hurting-women/2011/10/26/gIQAQSwGQM_story_2.html

“How an anti-abortion push to redefine ‘person’ could hurt women’s rights

By Jessica Valenti, Published: October 28

“A common message from anti-abortion activists is that “women deserve better than abortion.” Today, however, one branch of that movement is taking women down a notch with a new strategy that could prioritize the rights of fertilized eggs over the rights of the women carrying them.

“A question on the ballot in Mississippi next month will ask voters to decide: “Should the term ‘person’ be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof?” This issue is before voters thanks to the “personhood” movement, which says that conception is the moment that a person, and a person’s legal rights, begin to exist…”

          This Mississippi effort at enshrining zygotic tissue and declaring it sentient is extremely dangerous to the rights of all women resident in these supposedly United States. 

          Under no circumstances do I consider a fetus to be a person from the point of conception.  I am old enough to recall when 7-month miscarriages were almost always fatal to the fetus.  We’ve developed technology that can fill in for uterine incubation in many cases.  However such technology is expensive and beyond the means of many women to pay for. 

          If these “personhood” acts become laws, the potential for stupidity-fueled, religious fundamentalism to become inserted into the lives of actual persons is frightful.  The same fundamentalists that demand person status and rights for fetuses will instantly abandon that “person” to poverty, hunger, poor education, homelessness, and unwanted status the moment it is expelled from the uterus. 

          Read the article.  The danger is real.  Our American Taliban is intent upon rolling back the calendar to the days when women were merely necessary breeding stock.  This must be stopped.  Watch for these attempts to declare a fetus a person coming soon to your home state.