American Civil Liberties Union

This year, voters have overwhelmingly rejected personhood initiatives sending  messages to personhood proponents, as in:  ‘over.’  ‘Finito.’  Not interested. The fat lady has sung and your idea is a loser.

You would have thought the writing was on the wall.  Last November, voters in Mississippi decisively defeated a personhood initiative which, if passed, would have amended the state Constitution to grant legal rights to fertilized eggs, and in the process ban many forms of hormonal contraception and in-vitro fertilization, not to mention all abortions – without exceptions.  Mississippians resoundingly rejected that proposal by a 16- point margin.  And that was in Mississippi, arguably the most conservative state in the nation. 

It’s been an interesting few weeks for women’s rights and health in the courts. First, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state can force a doctor to tell a patient that women who have abortions are more likely to commit suicide than those who continue the pregnancy even

The House Judiciary Committee has held eight anti-abortion or anti-family planning votes or hearings so far this Congress.  This morning, they’re scheduled to make it nine.  The Committee will be considering the so-called “District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” which would ban abortion in the District of Columbia at 20 weeks.   

Apparently, things are getting a little heated out there in Lansing. Yesterday, despite massive public opposition, the Michigan House of Representatives passed an omnibus abortion bill (which we told you about here ) that could, among other things, shut down clinics that provide safe, legal abortions and end medication abortions throughout the state. Decorum was shattered. Gavels were struck. But not because lawmakers passed an extreme and dangerous law; a law that so clearly threatens the health and lives of all Michigan women. No, because Rep. Lisa Brown – that saucy minx – talked about her hoo-hah. Testifying against the bill, she told the Speaker "I’m flattered you’re all so interested in my vagina, but no means no."  Today, she and Rep. Barb Byrum (who reportedly shouted the word “vasectomy” out of turn) have been banned from speaking on the floor of the House.