Abortion is a controversial issue. I know that. Particularly in the infertility community where people have to try so hard to have a child. But pro-choice or pro-life, we’re all united in the quest for a family.
In several states across the US, there’s a movement to change the definition of “person” as part of the push to make abortion illegal. Tomorrow, voters in Mississippi are taking up the “Personhood Amendment” at the polls. Similar efforts will be up for decision in Colorado, Florida, and Ohio in 2012. The Mississippi amendment defines person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof .”
From the moment of fertilization.
The “Personhood Amendment” would make abortion illegal and it would outlaw some forms of birth control. Unfortunately, IVF may also be a casualty of this ideological war. Advocates of the Personhood Amendment claim that it wouldn’t make IVF illegal, but that it would prevent embryos from being destroyed.
So let’s look at the full language of the proposed amendment:
Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi: SECTION 1. Article III of the constitution of the state of Mississippi is hereby amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION TO READ: Section 33. Person defined. As used in this Article III of the state constitution, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” This initiative shall not require any additional revenue for implementation.
While the amendment doesn’t specifically mention IVF, I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t affect IVF. I can see this amendment making IVF much more complicated if every egg fertilized is defined as a “person” with all the rights that entails. It goes without saying that fertilized eggs could no longer be destroyed. But what about harvesting and fertilizing multiple eggs? Will it still be possible? Fertility doctors and clinics might be opening themselves up to a whole new realm of possible criminal liability. In a press release about the issue in October, RESOLVE board member Lee Rubin Collins, JD stated, “It is clear that with the prospect of intense governmental scrutiny of their medical practice and the threat of criminal sanctions, doctors will not want to practice reproductive medicine in Mississippi and will leave.”
I’m pretty worried that this push to preserve life will mean that many of us who need to use IVF won’t have the chance to create new life at all.
