http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/08/us-abortion-louisiana-idUSTRE7570AF20110608
The Louisiana state House of Representatives could soon consider a bill that would ban abortions and launch a battle to overturn the historic Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The bill by Republican state Rep. John LaBruzzo defines human life as beginning at the moment of conception and makes it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except when the birth would endanger the mother's life.
Two of the most aggressive efforts are under way in Alabama and Mississippi.
The measures define life as beginning at conception and would ban abortion. The Alabama Senate approved its bill, which is now pending in the House, and Mississippi residents will vote on the issue in November.
Nash says both of those bills "could conceivably" ban many forms of contraception because hormonal methods of contraception such as birth control pills act after fertilization of an egg occurs.
In Louisiana, LaBruzzo maintains that he has no intention of challenging a woman's right to practice contraception.
"This is not about interfering with anyone's ability to receive or participate in birth control," he told Reuters. "What the bill says is that life begins at conception, and a baby who is pre-born should enjoy all the rights that a 1-day-old baby does."
Cool, looks like they read the majority opinion of Roe v. Wade and did the opposite:
The Constitution does not define "person" in so many words. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment contains three references to "person." The first, in defining "citizens," speaks of "persons born or naturalized in the United States." The word also appears both in the Due Process Clause and in the Equal Protection Clause. "Person" is used in other places in the Constitution: in the listing of qualifications for Representatives and Senators,and in theApportionment Clause;in the Migration and Importation provision, in the Emolument Clause,in the Electors provisions,and the superseded cl. 3; in the provision outlining qualifications for the office of President, Art. II, § 1, cl. 5; in the Extradition provisions, Art. IV, § 2, cl. 2, and the superseded Fugitive Slave Clause 3; and in the Fifth, Twelfth, and Twenty-second Amendments, as well as in §§ 2 and 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.But in nearly all these instances, the use of the word is such that it has application only post-natally. None indicates, with any asurance, that it has any possible pre-natal application.
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