JolieSimons.com

Rick Jore is a very ambitious, no doubt about it. He’s also stupid.

Jore has created an amendment to the Montana state constitution that legally defines life as beginning at fertilization rather than at any other stage. Currently the Supreme Court and others have ruled that life can’t really be established until viability of a fetus which is why it’s okay for states to regulate or even ban abortion for older fetuses that are viable–that is, they can live unassisted–outside the womb.

Jore, however, wants to change that. He wants life to be defined as beginning at fertilization. When sperm hits egg, Jore says, then life has begun. I wonder if Jore knows how terribly unsuccessful most fertilized eggs actually are, especially in humans. Up to half of all fertilized eggs created will not implant and will thus not become a fetus. So are we going to start charging all women with murder who don’t live up to Jore’s lofty goals of implantation?

His nutty amendment is certainly an all-out appeal to religion and doesn’t attempt to hide that fact. If you read the amendment’s language, including changes made to the amendment, you can see that words like “born free ” were crossed out and replaced with “created free, ” and obvious allusion to religion. I have no problem with being religious but, last I checked, there was separation between church and state. I have the right to believe what I want, and CI-100 makes it seem like there’s only one acceptable explanation of life. That sucks.

So defining a fertilized egg as an human isn’t just a not-so-nice way of pushing religious ideas. It also sets a dangerous precedent for women. Consider the following:

• All abortion could be outlawed, including abortions performed to save the lives of mothers. The Supreme Court, by the way, has ruled many times that it’s unconstitutional to force a woman to die for her unborn child, assuming that an abortion would save her life.
• Birth control would be in jeopardy. So not only does this guy want to outlaw abortion, he wants to outlaw the one thing that can eliminate the need for abortion? Smart, Rick Jore. Smart.
• Doctors who treat women with high-risk pregnancies could face serious problems if women miscarry. It’s unclear if a doctor who treats a high-risk woman could be prosecuted for not doing everything in his power to save the life of a zygote, assuming the woman has a miscarriage.
• Jore, that silly rascal, has also said publicly that this law could allow for the investigation of women who have miscarriages for not doing everything they could to save the pregnancy. That’s the ticket, Rick! Blame the grieving women who’ve just lost their pregnancy!

I’m not trying to push my views on abortion, women’s health, or birth control on anyone. I just feel like a law this stupid has to be stopped and the people who write these laws need to stop and think about what they’re doing. Even if this law was passed, it’s unlikely it would be held constitutional by even our now-conservative Supreme Court. The problem is that people get this idea that it’s okay to ignore the fact that women have some say in their bodies, including their rights while pregnant. Jore’s amendment is almost like telling women that they are less important than the fetuses they carry.

Also, where’s this idea coming from that birth control is bad for our nation? Birth control saves lives! It keeps women from becoming pregnant before they are prepared. It prevents abortions. Who can argue against that?