Ruling highlights how support for the idea that a fetus should have the same rights as a person underpins far less dramatic laws and proposals from abortion foes.

The recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are legally protected children is highlighting how support for the idea that a fetus should have the same rights as a person underpins far less dramatic laws and proposals from abortion foes across the U.S.

Lawmakers in at least six states have proposed measures similar to a Georgia law that allows women to seek child support back to conception to cover expenses from a pregnancy. Georgia also allows prospective parents to claim its income tax deduction for dependent children before birth, Utah enacted a pregnancy tax break last year, and variations of those measures are before lawmakers in at least four other states.

Including legislation that makes harming or killing a fetus a crime, several dozen proposals falling under the broad umbrella of promoting fetal personhood are pending in at least 15 states, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural.

  • @dhorkEnglish
    53•9 months ago

    I’m all for giving pregnant women (and their unborn children) some special status. It’s simply a recognition of how human life works, and how fragile it all is. But no pregnancy is a guarantee, and the folks who are trying to extend full rights to the unborn based on their religious beliefs are going to cause a lot of unintended problems. This IVF thing will not be the last thing they fuck up.

    I’m not a big fan of the idea of abortion, but I recognize that it absolutely needs to be legal, because when it isn’t that just gives the government a justification to get all in your business. Making it illegal with exceptions specifically will not work, because we will never agree on how those exceptions are interpreted. All we can do is let women and their doctors make their own decisions. Religious people will just have to live with the fact that we might let people who don’t share their beliefs make decisions they don’t agree wih.

    • @MotoAsh
      36•9 months ago

      Religous people will just have to live with the fact that we might let people who don’t share their beliefs make decisions they don’t agree with.

      OK well now you’ve plain gone too far for these zealots.

    • @ngdevEnglish
      4•9 months ago

      I’m not a big fan of the idea of abortion

      Are you saying you’re not a big fan as in you don’t think it’s a great, fun thing to do? Like “I’m not a big fan of _____ sport”? Or against the idea itself?

      I’m assuming that by “the idea of abortion” what you really mean is that you’re not a fan of killing babies, which is not what abortions are doing.

      And if that’s not what you mean then I ask that you clarify what it is you do mean since, sure, you make decent points here but it’s important that everyone understands what an abortion is and what is being aborted, which is almost never a living baby.

      If I’m being honest, someone who says they don’t like the idea of abortion sounds like someone who doesn’t know much at all about what one is or what it’s removing. Or someone who thinks abortions are for sluts who go out fucking everyone and getting pregnant and just aborting 3rd trimester babies bc they’re sluts (I will clarify here that I also don’t see a problem with female promiscuity resulting in abortion either)

      • @ZapBeebz_
        5•9 months ago

        I mean, I don’t like the fact that abortions are necessary, for any of the very valid reasons to get one, because they can be very traumatic, and underscore a lot of the socioeconomic problems in this country.

        I also recognize that, as a man, it isn’t my job (/I have no right) to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies. So I’m as pro-choice/anti-judgement as I can get.

        • @ngdevEnglish
          3•9 months ago

          Nice, sorry if I came in hot. The issue you have is with health ramifications of the procedure which is also totally sane.