Oklahoma Personhood Bill Will Have Dire Consequences

If lawmakers in Oklahoma have their way, the zygote will become a person in the eyes of the law. This back-door challenge to a woman's right to choose was tried in Mississippi and failed, but that won't stop the anti-abortion foes from using it wherever they can.

The problem of making a fertilized egg a "person" means that in cases of rape or incest, the "person" in the victims womb has more rights than she does. Since zygotes cannot survive outside the body for long, the woman could be forced to carry the pregnancy to full term.

Then comes the matter of fertilized eggs in fertility labs. Parents wanting children may have in-vitro fertilized ovum frozen as part of their attempts to have children. Under Oklahoma law will these frozen embryos become people? If so do we hold the labs as perpetrators of kidnapping, since the embryos are being held against their assumed will?

This whole thing is just silly and a full blow assault on women and their right to choose. It will even make some forms of contraception illegal if it can be proven that the contraception somehow prevents a fertilized ovum from implanting in the womb.

The huge can of worms this bill would open is something far beyond the comprehension of the opportunistic lawmakers who are proposing it. They see an easy vote getter from anti-abortion folks and they don't care what havoc it might cause. Their real agenda is to crank the clock back to the 1950's or before. Not good for women and not good for America!