At a great blog called “That’s My Congress”, there is a story about Georgia Republican Paul Broun and his ‘Sanctity of Human Life Act‘ (HR-4157) that is right on the money. Let’s find out about the bill itself, shall we?
H.R. 4157, which Representative Broun refers to as the Sanctity of Human Life Act, might more accurately be entitled the Zygote Political Enfranchisement Act or the Anti-Fertility Act. The legislation has been written by Congressman Broun in order to define a human egg created in the United States from the moment of fertilization, through its development into a fetus ready to be born, as a complete person with full legal rights and constitutional protections equal to that of any other American citizen.
Under Broun’s proposed law, this award of full legal protections to all fertilized eggs, even one created just one minute ago, would be given regardless of the ability of the fertilized egg to implant in a womb and grow to become a baby. H.R. 4157 states this very directly:
“the life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent, irrespective of sex, health, function or disability, defect, stage of biological development, or condition of dependency, at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.”
A fertilized egg must be given all the legal protections of a person, irrespective of health, function or disability? That means that even if a fertilized egg or blastula (a tiny hollow ball of human cells post-fertilization) is somehow determined to have a terrible genetic disease, it would nonetheless have to be given full medical treatment in order to make sure that it survived to be born. If that treatment was not given, its parents could be criminally charged with child abuse or neglect.
Wait, it gets better.
In the Fifth District, we have a lot of problems that need to be addressed. Not once have I heard anyone say, “Gosh, I think I want to mess up couples’ ability to conceive and have children.” However, we do have a Congressman who is either too dense, or too ideologically bent to recognize the effect of this bill.
Yes, Virgil Goode signed on as a cosponsor for this bill. So did the following people, all Republicans:
You owe it to yourself to go read the whole article. It is well reasoned, and makes a lot of sense. These kinds of bills make me wonder if this isn’t dog whistle behavior for the Republicans? So they can say they are doing things their constituents want?
In any case, this is one House Bill that needs to be held in committee until dead.
And call your congressman or woman and tell them hands off your reproductive rights and your body. Yes, that includes men and women.
Human life is sacred as it’s created by God through the agency of man.
45 million have been murdered through abortion.
The women who have had abortions in the United States have outdone the Nazi’s.
Samuel, why is it that you can’t bother yourself to actually respond to the substance of the article? It sounds as if you’ve just come here and skimmed it and then left a boilerplate message without actually thinking. The article makes clear that this particular bill, supported by Virgil Goode, is highly impractical.
Whether you’re pro-life or not, Virgil Goode’s co-sponsorship indicates he has a profound lack of critical thinking skills, and isn’t qualified to represent the people of Virginia in Congress.
So with this bill passing that would mean women everywhere would be charged with murder by natural process whenever they have their period. Great job… really…great…job.