People are people. And sometimes cells.

The thing that probably most motivated the creation of this blog was Mississippi's proposed "personhood" amendment.  Now, I'm pro-choice, so I've got all kinds of objections to restrictions on abortion; the ones relevant have been covered extensively elsewhere.  My objective is to reveal this mess for the pandering* it was.

On its face Ballot Measure 26, as it was formally known, appeared to serve the anti-abortion interest:  Embryo = person --> can't kill persons --> no more abortions in the state, right?  Except, no.  The clever fetus-fetishists seem to have forgotten something:  Other states.  Where abortion is legal.  So, even as extreme and overbearing as BM26 promised to be, conceivably it could have prevented abortions only for those too poor or sick or injured to leave the state -- categories whose members are, ironically, not exactly the social conservatives' idea of "proper" parents.

So what was the point of BM26?  Well, had it passed, its effects would have contravened current Supreme Court precedent.  Doubtlessly it would have provoked a lawsuit then a series of appeals that would have led right back to SCOTUS.  And, the thinking goes, no telling what this perhaps most conservative court in a century might do to the stalwart Roe v. Wade decision.  But Roe has held up under immense assault for nearly 40 years.  Did the baby brigade really think this time was the charm?  Maybe. What they also had (remember, 26 was submitted as a possible amendment to the state constitution by a non-politician) was a Perfect Pandering Platform©. Modern conservative politicking is, arguably, less about No Moar Taxs, Tea Party notwithstanding, and more about how we can force everyone to be more socially Old-Testament-y. Yeah, I know, conservative Christians are all New Testament when it's convenient, but there's what they say versus what they do -- rail against gay rights, try to get the Ten Commandments (the wrong ones, in fact) posted in every school and courthouse -- essentially a bunch of things Jesus didn't care about.