Abortion Ban? North Dakota House Gives Rights to Fertilized Eggs
The North Dakota House has approved a measure giving fertilized eggs the same legal rights as humans, the Associated Press is reporting. Representatives voted 51-41 in favor of the measure, which essentially bans all abortions in the state of North Dakota.
According to the bill, "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens" is a person protected by rights granted by the North Dakota Constitution and state laws. The bill's sponsor, however, insists that the bill does not automatically ban abortion.
"This language is not as aggressive as the direct ban legislation that I've proposed in the past," Rep. Dan Ruby said during a House floor debate. "This is very simply defining when life begins, and giving that life some protections under our Constitution — the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
The bill will now go to the North Dakota Senate.
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If this is the will of the majority of the people in North Dakota, then, in the event a pregnant mother with rights equal to that of the fertilized egg wishes to exercise her independent or separate liberties from those of the fetus, it falls to the people of North Dakota to liberate her and the fetus from one another so they can each survive independently according to their individual abilities. If the ruling is the mother is equal to the fetus, then the mother has the right to freed from slavery to the fetus just as the fetus is free from the choices of the mother. The people of North Dakota MUST see to it the mother's rights and liberties are respected equal to the rights and liberties of the fetus. Also, if the people of North Dakota declare the very vulnerable fetus to be an independent or separate "person" and, in the event the mother demands her freedom from said "person", the people of North Dakota, if they value the survival of the fetus, then take the responsibility onto themselves to provide for the survival of said fetus.
The consequences of declaring the fetus an "equal person" is that you must necessarily honor the mother's wishes to be liberated from slavery to that "equal person" just as you would feel ethically compelled to free any individual from an unjustifiably-imposed state of slavery to another or others. A mother chained to the life of an unwanted fetus is no less a victim of tyranny than those victimized today by human trafficking rings or any other specific instance of human oppression. You do not legitimately boost the value of one life by denigrating the value of another. You cannot insist the fetus has rights by stepping all over the rights and liberties of the mother. In doing so, you trample your own argument for the fetus as an "equal person". Trample the rights and freedoms of the mother and, as an "equal", you trample the rights and freedoms of the fetus.
The people of North Dakota must face the genuine consequences of their ill-considered decisions regarding the lives of others. What they are doing by empowering fetuses is also empowering mothers or potential mothers. What rights and liberties you give to one in the name of "equality", you grant to all. What argument you make to preserve one life in the name of "equality", you make for the preservation of all life. You cannot speak for fetus without also speaking for mother.
A mother necessarily has the right to her own life, just as an "equal" fetus.