Morning Roundup: North Dakota – Personhood Before Pregnancy?

Beth Saunders

Personhood before pregnancy in North Dakota, Memphis pastor shames unwed parents, anti-choice groups are silent on the "forcible rape" bill, and Georgia looks to follow Nebraska on fetal pain.

Personhood before pregnancy in North Dakota, Memphis pastor shames unwed parents, anti-choice groups are silent on the “forcible rape” bill, and Georgia looks to follow Nebraska on fetal pain.

  • North Dakota is looking at an egg-as-person bill this legislative session. A lawmaker describing the bill said, “It defines a human being as, basically, from conception on, as what we define in code as a human being, and because of that, then, it`s afforded the same protections that any other person is afforded in the State of North Dakota.” A spokesperson from North Dakota Right to Life said, “If we can establish that they`re a person before pregnancy, and they`re a person after pregnancy, then it seems, well, it offends reason to say that they`re not a person during that pregnancy.” Back that train up. A person BEFORE pregnancy? Are we talking about the woman? No, sadly, he’s talking about a blastocyst. How is it a person before it even exists?
  • A Memphis pastor is responding to high rates of teen and unwed pregnancies in the local area with love and compassion. Oh, wait. No he’s not. He’s actually refusing to baptize babies in the church unless the parents are married. He says he’ll baptize the children elsewhere. He says he wants fathers to “step up” and marry the mothers, because clearly that is always the best answer.
  • Yesterday we reported on a quote from Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), the only sponsor of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” who was willing to speak up about the “forcible rape” provision in the bill. Well, he didn’t say much. Talking Points Memo tried to reach out to “National Right To Life, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Americans United For Life, the Susan B. Anthony List and the Abstinence Clearinghouse” – and all the groups either didn’t respond or had no comment. SBA List said they’d respond later. I’m picturing them all behind closed doors, panicking.
  • A Georgia legislator has introduced a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks because of “fetal pain,” and says he modeled the legislation after Nebraska’s law of the same nature.

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Jan 31