Abortion: my favorite thing to watch people bicker about via the comfortable anonymity of the Internet. Discourse in various comment sections and discussion boards has enlightened me to the fact that pro-choice liberals are "cold-hearted baby-killers," while pro-life conservatives are "soulless misogynistic slavers." This surprised me, because, I had always thought of liberals as those friendly tree-huggers and conservatives as the freedom lovers.
But honestly, such conversation made me realize one thing: Any politically tinged discussion on the issue of abortion is utterly worthless nowadays.
Why does this topic have no chance of advancing political debate? Nobody will accept that ‘the other side' has any valid points because both sides have their own respective absolutes: the absolute choice of the woman or the absolute life of the child. Consequently, nothing will be accomplished unless one group has the necessary brute power.
But as fruitless and worthless debating abortion may be, the issue will continue to haunt political theater for years to come. In fact, the Wisconsin's legislature brought the issue back in the form of the so-called ‘personhood amendment.' According to the legislative Reference Bureau, "The constitution states that all people are born equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, among which is the right to life. This constitutional amendment, proposed to the 2011 legislature on first consideration, replaces the phrase ‘are born equally free and independent' with the phrase ‘are equally free and independent' and defines the terms ‘people' and ‘person' with respect to the right to life to include every human being at any stage of development."
Perhaps the most delightful thing about this proposal is that it was created with the full knowledge that it would get absolutely nowhere. I have to tip my hat to state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, and state Reps. Andre Jacque, R-Bellevue, Daniel LeMahieu, R-Cascade, Donald Pridemore, R-Hartford, and the bill's other Republican co-sponsors for so courageously putting their names on top of a document that is so blatantly meant to waste the Legislature's time.
In fact, I have to commend any male politicians in this country who come up with abortion-related legislation without the participation of even one woman. Who better to come up with laws that strictly regulate the body than those whose bodies will never be affected by them?
Male politicians will never have to experience physically the abortion procedure, nor will they ever experience the emotional struggle a woman must face when she considers having an abortion because she has been raped or is too young or physically weak to complete a pregnancy. Therefore, male politicians can easily pretend there are no shades of gray in the morality or necessity of terminating a pregnancy and simply do away with abortion altogether-without being affected in the slightest.
Those Republican legislators' disconnect with abortion must also be the reason the change to the constitution is so dangerously imprecise and interpretable.
The best example of the bill's vagueness is that it never defines how exactly to interpret the phrase, "Every human being at any stage of development." I have to wonder where the starting point for, "Any stage of development" really is. Normally, I would assume they are referring to the scientific starting point of the human body-the joining of the sperm cell and the egg-but they're politicians, and I can't expect any sound scientific reasoning from them.
This leads me to believe that the personhood bestowed on, "Every human being at any stage of development" could eventually apply to the individual sperm or egg. Technically, they each have the potential to form a human and could therefore be considered a human at a very early stage of development. Of course, this is absolutely ridiculous, but this is a vague proposal.
In the end, this so-called "personhood amendment" is a pointless imitation of the Mississippi's failed attempt at its own constitutional amendment. If politicians are truly pro-life, they should work on improving society by increasing people's access to health care, education and jobs so fewer women feel pressured into having an abortion.
That would be some legislation worth working on.
Mary Sedarous is a freshman with an undeclared major. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
