Mississippi's Ballot Initiative Would Confer Personhood on Fertilized Egg

The Mississippi Amendment 26 ballot initiative has attracted much attention. The amendment, up for vote on November 8th, establishes personhood for a fertilized egg, with the objective of ending abortions in the state and eliminating birth control options that interfere with the implantation of a fertilized egg. A similar ballot amendment was defeated twice in Colorado. If Amendment 26 becomes effective, its proponents note that “the Amendment would confer due process rights on the unborn.” Already, fetal homicide laws exist in at least 38 states. Such laws can effectively criminalize abortion. A useful commentary from Jessica Valenti summarized the various scenarios in which pregnant women who do not seek an abortion still can have their pregnancy-based health decisions affected, or prohibited by such laws. The scenarios for law enforcement include the prosecution of an Indiana woman charged with fetal homicide after a suicide attempt and a class of women charged under the Alabama chemical endangerment statute because of drug abuse during pregnancy, or the use of such laws in Mexico to prosecute Mexican women for miscarriages. Stem cell research advocates are also weighing in against Amendment 26, with Stem Cell Action noting that the attachment of legal rights to the fertilized egg would adversely affect embryonic stem cell research, access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, including interfering with the right of couples seeking to donate unused embryos for stem cell research. The Amendment, if passed, provides one more template for institutionalizing the unborn (fertilized egg, fetus) as a class of legal actors whose rights are set against established norms of reproductive autonomy for women, as well as against the scientific community that seeks to harness the power of embryonic stem cells for promising (but not necessarily imminent) therapeutic applications. Such laws also raise the specter of a diffuse spread of liability for many women (pregnant or not), medical professionals, and scientists.