According to on-line reports, Initiative 26 in Mississippi would define personhood as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” Anti-abortion activists seem to believe that it will “open the door” to overturning Row v. Wade. If passed, such a rule of law may have the unintended effect of being the bane of corporations and their supposed right to donate unlimited money to political candidates.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour offered his support for the Initiative, although he believed it was “too ambiguous.” You can bet that it’s his special interest, corporations, that are concerned. If a “person” is a fertilized egg, then a corporation certainly is not a person, and therefore, arguably should not be allowed rights under the U.S. Constitution. Republican politicians who answer to special interest corporations are now ironically placed in a difficult position. Republicans have used abortion for decades as a wedge issue to garner support from middle-class conservatives. Once they gain power, however, they serve the rich, keeping taxes low for the mega rich, while placating the middle class with social issues like abortion. But now, true-believer-conservative-Republicans are effectively turning the issue of abortion against the special interest. If a person is a fertilized egg, then a corporation is not protected. The hesitancy of Gov. Barbour will be exposed once he and others like him slowly begin to move to “clarify” the supposed ‘ambiguity’ in “personhood” laws. If he and others of his ilk seek to clarify that “organizations” or companies are not covered, it will merely confirm where their true loyalties lay.