Doctors call Mississippi "personhood" initiative dangerous

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Physicians in Mississippi as well as state and national medical organizations are warning about serious, unintended consequences for doctors and for women's health care if voters approve the so-called "personhood" initiative in balloting next week.

The initiative is "a dangerous intrusion of criminal law into the provision of medical care," according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The Mississippi chapter of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists sent a letter to its members telling them the initiative "will have a profound negative effect on our patient relationships for years to come." And a statement from the Mississippi State Medical Association warns that "it will place in jeopardy a physician who tries to save a mother's life by performing procedures and employing techniques physicians have used for years."

What's behind those dire warnings is Initiative 26, commonly known as the "personhood" initiative, which voters will decide on Nov. 8. It declares that a fertilized human egg is a person and it would amend the state constitution so that all references to a person apply to a fertilized egg. The one paragraph initiative asks voters: "Should the term 'person' be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof?"

Debating Mississippi's "Personhood Amendment"

Backers are targeting abortion, of course, with the goal of making abortion illegal in Mississippi and eventually overturning Roe v. Wade. The Colorado-based group behind the personhood movement, Personhood USA, has failed in previous attempts to have voters in that state outlaw the destruction of fertilized eggs, but they appear poised for a win in Mississippi. And that has many physicians warning a "yes" vote will have implications far beyond abortion, with consequences for the practice of obstetrics, gynecology, infertility and reproductive medicine and for the use of some forms of birth control.

"The thing that we're mainly concerned about is our physicians' ability to take care of our sisters and our daughters and our mothers in ways that we've been taking care of them for 100 years," said Dr. Tom Joiner, a family practitioner who is also president of the state medical association. "What this thing is doing is it's taking it out of the realm of medical decisions into the realm of legal decisions."

Joiner and other opponents of Initiative 26 are concerned that by attempting to criminalize abortion, the initiative will criminalize routine medical practice that intentionally or not terminates a pregnancy. There is no mention in the initiative of an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, nor for the health of the mother, as in the case of life-threatening conditions such as ectopic or molar pregnancies. (In an ectopic pregnancy the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, most often in the fallopian tube; in a molar pregnancy the fertilized egg becomes an abnormal growth such as a tumor rather than a fetus.)

"These pregnancies were not meant to go on to be people and we don't think calling them persons is going to do any good for the patients that carry them nor the pregnancies themselves," said Tupelo obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Wayne Slocum, vice chair of the Mississippi section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Slocum said because ectopic and molar pregnancies never result in live births, casting those fertilized eggs as "persons" does not make sense. "They just need to be treated either with medication or surgery," he said. "If not the mother can bleed to death or have dire consequences."

The state medical association has tried to walk a fine line so as not to be viewed as taking sides in the abortion debate. While not formally opposing the personhood initiative, the association does not support it, either, and has issued a statement expressing concern that physicians could face prosecution if it becomes law. While many physicians in Mississippi oppose abortion, Joiner says nearly all of the association's members oppose Initiative 26. "But those who take the other view are very loud and make their voices heard," he said.

One of those voices is that of Dr. Eric Webb, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Tupelo who describes himself as "pro-life." Webb calls arguments from the medical community that doctors may face prosecution spurious. He says they are protected by Mississippi law. "There are statutes right now on the books with regard to fetal homicide and wrongful death that have specific exemptions for physicians who are acting in the best interest of the patient," Webb said. "The amendment in no way by establishing personhood for the unborn changes those laws."

While Webb firmly believes life begins with a fertilized egg, he says even if Initiative 26 passes exceptions should and will be made when there is a serious risk to the health of the mother. And despite his staunch opposition to abortion, Webb says in his own practice he makes exceptions for cases like ectopic or molar pregnancies.

Both sides agree the personhood initiative is a direct threat to standard infertility treatments, in which eggs are routinely frozen and stored after fertilization. Supporters of Initiative 26 would like to end that practice. The national organization for fertility clinics and researchers, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), has vigorously opposed the initiative, pointing out in a letter to the Mississippi secretary of state that human reproduction is often inefficient, and that with or without medical assistance "fewer than 20 percent of fertilized eggs implant in the uterus."

"Those who would seek to make decisions for others about their reproductive rights are happy to do that whether it involves contraception, infertility or pregnancy termination," said ASRM spokesman Sean Tipton. "We happen think reproductive medical decisions should be best made between the physician and the patient."

It's unclear how the personhood initiative would affect some forms of birth control. Supporters are clearly seeking to outlaw RU486 (mifepristone), also known as the abortion pill. But physicians opposed to the initiative warn that an unintended consequence could be a ban on other forms contraception, such as the birth control pill and IUD, which in some circumstances may be detrimental to the implantation of an already-fertilized egg.

"The backers of this are trying to do away with abortion - we also are not 'for' abortion," said Slocum, who despite his opposition to the personhood initiative describes himself as pro-life. "But we feel like passing this amendment to the state constitution would do more to harm our patients than it will do to stop abortion."

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[Jamie_Lappe]

This comment is directed at Riley. What gives you or anyone else the right to decide what a woman can or cannot do with her own body? It is not the place of anyone else to decide, especially in a medical situation or a case of rape, that a woman should be forced to carry a child to term! What if it were your wife or one of your daughters that were raped? Would you honestly want to force them to be victimized for a second time and be forced to carry a "rape baby" to term? No one should be made to go through that. This country is heading into socializim and the thinking of this countrys' lawmakers and all these advocate groups are so screwed up beyond recognition. all I can say ladies is if this passes, there is always the old coat hanger method!!!!!! and a note to all you people who say "oh, someone will adopt them" tell that to all the kids in foster care and orphanages who desprately want a family and are all alone in the world!

[slatep]

Where do legislators get off deciding when life begins.?

I can't believe ; after all this time; human beings still think they have the right to decide when a fertilized egg becomes a person.

There are so many factors to take into consideration; no legislation could possibly cover all of them when it comes to performing an abortion.

It should be the right of the individual carrying the fertilized egg to decide when "life begins".

I am pro-life, but I do believe there are cirurcumstances when abortion should be allowed.

I also think there should be very limited extreme circumstances when they should be peformed.

[franknkissy]

We see that the usual allotment of doctor frankensteins is as usual protesting any public policy that might limit their freedom to experiment on poor mothers and unborn infants !
Frank A. Novello - Paz Intercesor ....

[AttyFAM]

Mississippi Republicans - no, make that Republicans - hate women. There is no other explanation.

[Zann-Zel]

Okay - your daughter is pregnant, but something is wrong and if they don't do a D&C she'll die. But THIS LAW makes them afraid they'll be charged with murder if they do the D&C your daughter needs.

Now......are you MORE attached to your unborn and never will be born cuz there is something wrong with them, Grandchild? Or are you MORE attached to you daughter.

Which one gets to live?

[Lifeisbeautiful88]

When abortion was illegal, women could always get life-saving treatment even when that treatment required the removal of the child. The same would be true under Initiative 26. Of course, doctors should always try to save both mother and baby, when possible. The Mississippi legislature will never outlaw life-saving treatment for the mother

[kansas1946]

Mississippi is an ignorant, backward, undereducated, bigoted, state, so this is the kind if idiocy we should expect from there. These are the decendants of folks that believe they had a moral imperative to own other human beings, to rip their children out of their arms to be sold as spring lambs. Not a very deep thinking culture down there.

[Closer1616]

What an ignorant comment! You have nothing intellegent to add to the discussion so this is your contribution? I'm assuming by your username that you're from Kansas. It's great to hear that EVERYONE in Kansas were Abolitionists and they led the charge to free the slaves. Thanks to you, we now know that EVERYONE in Mississippi had slaves and it was our "moral imperative" to own another human being. I always thought it was the major land owners in the agriculture industry. But I guess everyone in MS owned big plantations, right? I also thought industrialists up north supported slavery to maintain cheap prices on commodities like tobacco, cotton and coffee. But now I know it was all of the people in MS and only the people in MS. Being from MS (and having owned a few slaves myself two hundred years ago), I'm glad an educated person as yourself was able to enlighten an "undereducated" person like me on the situation. Maybe we should pass a law that says people like you should be forced to have abortions so that your hate can't be passed on to future generations.

[carolo43]

Wow. A little "seed" that can only be seen with a microscope or something in a petrie dish is now a "person", according to these nut jobs? A person is a living, breathing thing. Fanatics do not belong in politics.

[thebob-bob]

Do they have any idea how many times a fertilized egg fails to implant and develop for perfectly natural (god's plan) reasons? Are these folks out of their mind??? All women would be subject to murder charges if some DA can convince a jury that she miscarried because: she smoked, she drank, she exercised too much, she kept working, she did yoga, she danced, she traveled, she ate too much fat, etc. Won't mandatory pregnancy tests be necessary to "protect the unborn"?? Any woman, anytime could be stopped under suspicion of endangerment??

Do you really want The Government to have the power to Prosecute??? Seriously??

[Lifeisbeautiful88]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When abortion was illegal, women were not arrested or investigated for miscarriages. It's because a miscarriage is not a criminal act. Police need probable cause and won't waste their time investigating non-crimes. The same would be true after 26 becomes law.

They don't prosecute every parent whose child dies of SIDS, only when their is probable cause for CRIMINAL INTENT.

[tsigili]

The assault on women's rights, has to end.

No one should be able to tell a woman that she has no choice, in giving birth to an unwanted child. period.

[jimbom121]

Even if this passes (and in Mississippi, it probably will), it will be challenged in the courts and overturned. But that aside, it won't actually stop abortions...it will just return them back to the pre-Roe v Wade and have them done illegally.

[Lifeisbeautiful88]

Seeing as how abortion causes a 40% increase in breast cancer risk...that might not be such a bad thing. Women have been duped and should be given full disclosure.