Free Republic

There has been no dearth of news stories, reports, and commentary over the past few months on the epidemic of racists, whether in law enforcement or the general population, either inflicting or attempting to inflict, punishment on African Americans for being African Americans. As noted here on Tuesday, “there are certain groups who are adamant that as superior human beings they have authority to mete out punishment for violations of their beliefs that are usually borne of religion.” Despite protections in the U.S. Constitution and federal and state laws, the past six years have seen an increase in religious fundamentalists...

The rest of conservative America may be celebrating, but for the Personhood movement, it is time for some sober analysis. Tuesday’s election results were certainly not good for pro-abortion Democrats, but they were even worse for the Personhood movement.  I have to admit that my own predictions were off and I am sorely disappointed. After the defeat of Measure 1 in North Dakota by an unexpectedly wide vote of 64-36 and of the Brady Amendment in Colorado by an almost identical margin of 65-35, it isn’t an overstatement to say that the statewide personhood ballot measure is dead for now. Here’s why.   In 2011, when personhood...

Pro-life candidates swept into office nationwide... fueled by opposition to the poor economy, President Obama, and his signature accomplishment: ObamaCare... Those candidates most outspoken on abortion outperformed those who were reticent to engage the pro-life community. The results support life and traditional marriage. National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown says NOM spent $200,000 ... in grassroots efforts... "It's time for the GOP... to wake up and realize that marriage is a winning issue, in red states and blue," Brown said. "We look forward to working with Congress to advance the cause of marriage.”

The personhood movement is likely to either collapse or ignite as a result of today’s midterm elections. A lot is on the line as Colorado’s Amendment 67 and North Dakota’s Measure 1 are headed to the polls.  The most important question on the mind of most political insiders is the viability of 100 percent pro-life candidates who will be tested on the national stage on the questions of personhood.  Will Cory Gardner, the Senate candidate from Colorado, a man who has renounced his past support of personhood, fare better or worse than Joni Ernst, the Senate candidate from Iowa who did not renounce her support for personhood? Will the literal...

Every single day over 3,000 unborn children in the United States are brutally murdered by having their limbs literally torn and ripped apart.  This is the cold hard truth, and although every year there are hundreds of pro-life laws attempting to confront this dark reality legislatively, you will almost never hear a positive news story about pro-lifers. I believe that Heather and Brady's story needs to be heard and that the political media should be chastised for burying and distorting it. In the spring of 2013, I drafted and was one of the two proponents of the Colorado Brady...

As of the writing of this story, if you run a google news search on the word “personhood” two clusters of news appear.  The first set of articles relate to Tommy the chimp and the case that is being argued on appeal in the State of New York to establish legal personhood for animals. The second cluster is a barrage of “news” articles - more political porn than news - in which the main stream media is attempting to portray all politicians who support or supported universal human personhood as either Taliban-like religious zealots, or hypocrites running from their past.Let’s...

The New Hampshire Republican Party amended its platform this weekend with stricter abortion provisions, including support for "personhood," which defines life as beginning at conception.Personhood has become a hot-button issue in Senate races across the country this year, such as Colorado, where Democrats have successfully attacked Rep. Cory Gardner for having supported such a measure in the past.Now, the issue could spread to New Hampshire, following the state party's decision at its convention.The platform now states: "Support the pre-born child's fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment, and implement all Constitutional and legal protections."It added: "Support a...

More pro-life legislation has been enacted on the state level in recent years than at any time since Roe vs. Wade, and even at the federal level, legislation has been introduced that would put the abortion limit in the United States at 20 weeks rather than at birth.Yet there are those who will insist that banning only some abortions is not the right approach, given that every abortion is equally wrong from a moral standpoint, and that no law can ever justify a single abortion. Some in the movement, in fact, hold that the only public policy initiatives we should...

(RNS) Arthur Caplan is the nation’s most quoted medical ethicist for a couple of reasons: He knows his stuff. And he’s unusually accessible. But even Homer nods.Arthur L. Caplan is the head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. Creative Commons image by Pete Wright In an essay in the upcoming issue of Free Inquiry magazine about the contraception and abortion debate, Caplan makes what the philosophers call a “category error.” In it, he tries to bring science into the argument about personhood. As Caplan frames the issue:“When does human life begin? For those...

It is absolutely critical that the issue dividing the pro-lifers and abortion advocates be clarified and not muddled by irrelevancies. As author Scott Klusendorf points out in The Case for Life: “If you think a particular argument for elective abortion begs the question regarding the status of the unborn, here’s how to clarify things: Ask if this particular justification for abortion also works as a justification for killing toddlers. If not, the argument assumes that the unborn are not fully human.” (The Case for Life, p. 25, para. 1). Since hardly anybody appeals to bodily rights, economic conveniences, or rights...

An animal rights group is taking to the courts in an effort to seek personhood for a chimpanzee. In a lawsuit filed today in Fulton County, New York, the Nonhuman Rights Project demands that "Tommy" — a privately owned chimp who lives on a reindeer farm in the state — be freed from his owners and moved to a sanctuary. According to the group, they'll also file two additional lawsuits seeking sanctuary for chimps in other parts of the state. Those chimps are Kiko, living at a nonprofit center, and Hercules and Leo, being used for research at Stony Brook...

This video from the Media Research Center is tragic on many levels. The video portrays MRC's clever attempt to get people to sign a petition in favor of "fourth trimester abortions," using all the same phony-baloney propaganda spewed by advocates for the child killing industry. And several times on camera it works. Sure, a couple of people question the petition. One gentleman refuses to sign and asks the MRC staffer if he'll attend his Bible study with him instead. Another young lady says that's killing a live human being so she can't sign on. But other than those rare exceptions,...

North Dakota didn’t set out to become the abortion debate's new epicenter. It happened by accident, after a legislative caucus that once vetted abortion bills languished, leaving lawmakers to propose a flurry of measures—some cribbed from Wikipedia—without roadblocks. … Lawmakers on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House’s approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state’s constitution in November 2014. It’s one of several anti-abortion...

The North Dakota state Senate approved an amendment last Thursday that would protect unborn babies from the moment of conception. The proposed “personhood” amendment (SCR 4009) declares that “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.” The Senate also passed another bill (SB 2303) meant to ensure that “the protection that our criminal laws afford to victims of crimes extends to all human beings born and unborn.” The amendment's sponsor, Republican State Senator Margaret Sitte, said she intended the measure to serve as “a direct challenge to Roe v....

A group of Republican legislators has introduced legislation that would make all abortions illegal in Iowa and any doctor who performs an abortion in Iowa would face murder charges. “What the bill does is it defines what a person is,” says Representative Tom Shaw, a Republican from Laurens who is the bill’s lead sponsor. “We put it right underneath our murder statute. This is in keeping with Roe v Wade where Justice Blackman said that if the state ever defined the fetus to be a person, then, of course, it would have all the protections of the 14th amendment. ...”...

Corporations may have many of the same rights as people, but those rights do not include riding in the carpool lane in Novato. That was the message Monday at Marin County Superior Court traffic hearing, where San Rafael activist Jonathan Frieman appeared to contest a $489 carpool fine. His argument? He was not riding alone in the carpool lane on Highway 101 in October, as alleged by police, because his corporation -- a stack of papers named "JoMiJO Foundation" -- was riding shotgun. Therefore, he was obeying the signs reading, "2 or more persons per vehicle." His lawyer, Ford Greene...

The Colorado Personhood Coalition submitted more than 121,000 signatures to the secretary of state on Monday to again put Personhood on the November ballot. Only 86,000 valid signatures were needed. Congratulations Colorado!

On Monday, we discussed how interpreting the Constitution from an originalist perspective reveals that there is no constitutional right to abortion. I concluded that post by challenging pro-choicers to put constitutionalism above ideology and demonstrate whether they recognize any areas where their agenda must yield to higher principles, such as judicial honesty. In the interest of fairness and clarity, today we’ll turn that question around: what constitutional limits must pro-lifers recognize while pursuing our goals?The first, obviously, is the prospect of pro-life judicial activism. As Justice Antonin Scalia told CNN’s Piers Morgan earlier this month: Just as the pro-choice people...

DENVER, CO, July 4, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) —Days after Personhood USA president Keith Mason’s home was attacked in the night leaving his wife and children traumatized, a Personhood volunteer, 69-year-old Everett Stadig, was assaulted, sustaining a broken hip. On Saturday, Stadig – a soft-spoken and slender gentleman - was thrown off his bicycle while peacefully gathering signatures for the Personhood amendment in Colorado, and as a result has had to undergo surgery to replace part of his hip. Stadig stopped outside a grocery store to invite people to sign the Personhood petition. One woman expressed interest in signing, but had...

DENVER, CO, July 2, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - From the gunning down of a pro-life picketer in Michigan in 2009, to the filmed attack on pro-lifers in New Mexico in 2011, to another filmed attack in Washington last week, violent assault against pro-life Americans are on the rise.  Another pro-lifer was attacked last Tuesday, but this time at his home, with his wife and children terrorized in the middle of the night. Personhood USA Founder and President Keith Mason and his wife Jennifer have three young children from eight years old on down, and a fourth child due next month. ...