Personhood

Okay.

I wasn't going to discuss this, but here it goes. In Mississippi they are voting on Amendment 26, also known as the Personhood Amendment. I'm not even going to link to something that will explain what it is, because it's fucking stupid. So, here you go: Vote no on Amendment 26.

The Personhood Amendment is just that: An amendment defining when "personhood" begins. The implications of this to family planning and a woman's health are far reaching and downright terrifying. Women become nothing more than incubators. They're not people. This kind of attitude is one of the main reasons I don't live in Mississippi anymore. There are a lot of reasons I don't live there anymore, but I could not live in a state that didn't think I was smart enough to make decisions about my own health or well being. I couldn't live in a state that saw me as a second-class citizen.

I am adamantly and passionately pro-choice. I always have been. I am not pro-abortion, as the anti-choice people would have you think, I am pro-choice. I want a choice. I want everyone to have a choice. To be pregnant is the decision to be left to those involved--and their doctors, if need be. I can't make this decision for you and you can't make this decision for me. I do have friends who are anti-choice--we just don't talk about it. I'd like to think I can accept those who don't agree with me, and I do have friends who are adamantly anti-choice, but I couldn't live in a state that had no respect for me as a human being, as a person.

Amendment 26 goes too far. Far, far too far. I can't even go into how far because it would make me angrier than I have been in a long time. Mississippi, the state and its government, has spent far too much time trying to keep women from making their own health decisions, from allowing women access to medical procedures that are completely legal and none of their fucking business. The state of Mississippi believes that if you are a woman, you are not in complete control of your body--you are at the mercy of the government.

They felt that way before Amendment 26 and it was never something I was comfortable with. Ever. I hated it. I was offended by it. There was no one in the government who represented my voice. Mississippi politicians, including Democrats, know that being pro-choice is political suicide.

Now, it's up to the voters of Mississippi.

I hope, I mean really hope, that common sense prevails. I hope that right prevails. There are good people in Mississippi. There are good, smart people in Mississippi. There are people who are terrified of Amendment 26. I can only hope that they win. I hesitated to say something about this because I didn't want to perpetuate the image of Mississippi as nothing more than a bunch of freakish evangelicals. Because it's not. But Amendment 26 isn't just about Mississippi. If it's passed, it will be appealed. And it will eventually end up in front of the Supreme Court.  If this passes, this affects all of us. And looking at the Supreme Court right now, how they would vote on this.... That scares me, too.