Jun 082008
 

The Denver Post printed my letter to the editor on Colorado’s proposed “personhood amendment” today.

As printed, it reads:

I’m disheartened that the “personhood” amendment has gathered the signatures required to appear on the ballot. A woman’s fundamental right to control her own body, including her right to terminate or sustain a pregnancy, should not depend on majority vote. This would violate that right in spades, based on the fantasy that an embryo is equal to an infant. It would force a woman to provide life support to any fertilized egg — even at the risk of her life and health and even if ruinous to her goals and dreams. It would make actual persons — any woman capable of bearing children, plus her husband or boyfriend — slaves to merely potential persons. That kind of moral evil has no place in a modern society; it deserves to be soundly defeated at the polls in November.

Diana Hsieh, Sedalia

I’m determined to work to defeat this insane amendment. Despite many more signatures than required to place it on the ballot, it seems unlikely to pass. Many religious leaders oppose it, and even even the three Catholic bishops in Colorado don’t support it. Nonetheless, the risk is real, particularly given the religious fervor of the anti-abortionists. Moreover, it’s an excellent opportunity to defend individual rights, particularly abortion rights, against demands for the imposition of Biblical law.

   
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