Huckabee Thinks a Fertilized Egg is a Person, Let's Take That to Its Logical Conclusion.

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon at 5:11 AM on February 28, 2008.

Holy mother of dog. It only takes 76,000 registered Colorado voters to sign up to get this on the ballot.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Monday endorsed a proposed Colorado Human Life Amendment that would define personhood as a fertilized egg.

The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister also supports a human-life amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Huckabee spoke favorably about the Colorado ballot initiative, sponsored by 20-year-old Kristi Burton and her Colorado for Equal Rights group, during his Friday visit to Colorado Springs. On Monday, Huckabee lent official support to the measure.

"This proposed constitutional amendment will define a person as a human being from the moment life begins at conception," Huckabee said in a statement. "With this amendment, Colorado has an opportunity to send a clear message that every human life has value," Huckabee said. "Passing this amendment will mean the people of Colorado will protect the sanctity of life from conception until natural death occurs."

Burton's initiative, if approved by voters in November, would extend state constitutional protections to every fertilized egg, guaranteeing the right to life, liberty, equality of justice and due process of law.

Well, now I want to know how far Huckabee wants to take this effort. Let's think about the practicalities of such an amendment. I'm not being flip here, because creating a "fetus citizen" status has real-world applications and will necessitate laws and regulations that the womb control advocates need to think out and explain to the rest of us.

* For instance, will a post-coitus woman be able to drive in a HOV lane because she may be carrying a fertilized egg?

* Will the highway patrol need to carry pregnancy testing kits to confirm the ability for them to use HOV lanes on the spot?

* Can airlines charge a woman for two seats since the fertilized egg is a person?

* Can an impregnated woman be punished for poor eating habits, or consuming alcohol or artificial sweeteners?

* Is the boyfriend/husband an accomplice to a crime if he drives her to the abortion clinic? * Can a woman claim her fetus as a tax deduction?

* For couples who fertilize multiple eggs for in vitro, are they guilty of murder if the unused eggs are discarded?

* Should a woman register with the state whenever she has unprotected sex (without using any form of birth control), since she might be carrying a fertilized egg?

* What about a woman who skips her birth control pills, has sex, the egg is fertilized and she later resumes her contraception, unknowingly causing an "abortion." What punishment should she receive?

* And, of course, the current bar people on both sides banter about -- consideration of the a medical emergency of the mother or cases of rape and incest -- how will the state-based fetus citizen council determine punishment?

We know Pastor Hutch and friends want to have control over every womb, but if we take this thinking to its logical conclusion, the state would need to know when a man spilled his seed in a situation where creating a fetus citizen is a possibility.

Tagged as: reproductive justice, abortion, elections, huckabee, human life amendment, contraception

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.