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| I would like to respond to a letter published December 4, 2009 that was written by Jennifer Premo of Kalispell. She wrote to urge people against signing the new petition for Personhood, officially called CI- 102. She is obviously pro-choice in favor of abortion and afraid that if we succeed in getting a Personhood Amendment passed that it might lead to the end of abortion. |
She cites the fact that the Montana Legislature in 2007 and 2009 failed to pass a Constitutional Amendment. That part was correct but it was because it required over 75% of the Legislature to affirm this and the majority of the Democrats in the House or Senate will not vote against any type of legislation that opposes abortion rights. I believe if the issue was put to the entire Montana Electorate, however, that the majority of Montana voters would vote in favor of changing the Montana Constitution where it says : "Every person has a right to life, liberty," etc. to read : "Every person, from the moment of conception, (or some similar words) has the right to life, liberty," etc. |
This issue goes right back to 1970 and 1971 when the US Supreme Court was arguing the merits of the infamous case known as Roe vs. Wade. It was Justice Stewart Potter who first raised the issue of Personhood. In the book, THE BRETHREN by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong, it says "Stewart had one more change that he insisted on before he would join the opinion. It was imperative that they say more clearly that a fetus was not-- as far as the Fourteenth Amendment was concerned --a person. If the fetus were a person, it had rights protected by the Constitution, including 'life, liberty and property'. Then the Court would be saying that a woman's right outweighed those of the fetus. Weighing two sets of rights would be dangerous. The Court would be far better off with only one set of rights to protect. Stewart was certain that in legal terms a fetus was not a person. No previous case had held so. States conceded that, where the mother's life was at stake, a fetus had no rights. When the Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868, abortions were common enough to suggest that the state legislatures that had ratified the Amendment did not consider fetuses to have rights. Blackman (the author of Roe vs. Wade) did not disagree, but he felt the point was implicit in the opinion. Why expand it and stir up trouble? Stewart was insistent, and Blackman finally agreed to say clearly that a fetus was not a person." |
Justice Potter Stewart was wrong. Justice Harry Blackman was wrong when he wrote it in his opinion. The Catholic Church has for centuries, held and taught, and most Christian Churches have concurred, that a human being was a person from the moment of conception. It is at that moment of conception, that God creates the Soul and endows it with all the special gifts that will make that person a unique human being. In recent years, scientists have discovered something they call DNA. Every person has a unique DNA and scientists now tell us that the DNA too, is present at the moment of conception. The DNA does not belong just to a "fertilized egg" as Jennifer Premo refers to the embryo, but the DNA belongs to a person and will be part of that person, his or her entire life. Here in Montana we are making another effort to gather signatures to put on the ballot for the next election next November, the issue as to whether or not, to change the Montana Constitution by adding a few words to define when a human being becomes a person. This new signature gathering effort is what is referred to as CI-102. If someone asks you to sign your name to this petition, please do so for the sake of our "unborn posterity". |
The framers of our US Constitution began by saying "We are writing this for ourselves and our posterity". We can never have any posterity unless they are first born. Before they can be born they must be conceived and safely nurtured within their mother's womb. Jennifer Premo suggests that having a baby would hurt a woman and her family. The greatest gift that a woman who does not want a baby, can give is to allow her baby to be adopted. Adoption has proven to be very beneficial for the birth mother, the adoptive parents and naturally for the baby. |
If you would like to sign CI-102 and don't know where to find a form, please call 862-8599. If there is no answer, leave a message and there is no need to wait for a beep. We will get back to you and arrange a time and place for you to sign CI-102. |
Suzanne Brooks, Whitefish, MT |