Tea Party Senator and Aqua-Buddha worshiper Rand Paul has introduced a bill that would eliminate a woman’s right to choose an abortion. This, coming at a time when government gridlock on the budget threatens the economy, health care, and jobs.

The fetal personhood bill, known as The Life at Conception Act, grants legal rights to fertilized eggs and would therefore outlaw abortion and some forms of contraception. In a statement regarding the bill, Rand Paul said:

“The Life at Conception Act legislatively declares what most Americans believe and what science has long known – that human life begins at the moment of conception, and therefore is entitled to legal protection from that point forward. The right to life is guaranteed to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence and ensuring this is upheld is the Constitutional duty of all Members of Congress.” [Raw Story]





According to Raw Story, Paul’s legislation is an attempt to declare when life begins, with the Kentucky Senator claiming last year:

“If the personhood of an unborn baby is established, the right to abort ‘collapses, for the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14] Amendment.”

The problem for Paul is that the 14th Amendment already specifies birth as the threshold for being granted rights in the United States. Section I of the 14th Amendment states:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

“All persons born” is the key phrase here. Nowhere in the 14th Amendment does it say that the unborn, especially fertilized eggs, have legal rights. Rather, the Amendment specifically gives all rights, including the right to life, liberty, property, and equal protection of the laws ONLY to persons BORN. No act of Congress can change the Constitution. Therefore, the only way to outlaw abortion is to change the Constitution via a constitutional amendment. And such an amendment requires ratification by 3/4 of the states. And that’s a really tall order right now.

Despite all the conservative rhetoric on the issue of abortion over the last few years, more people support the procedure remaining legal than ever before. A recent poll found that 70% of Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, the 40-year-old landmark Supreme Court ruling that protects a woman’s right to choose. Such overwhelming support of legal abortion makes changing the 14th Amendment extremely unlikely.

But that hasn’t stopped conservatives from trying to ban abortion in the states. Mississippi Republicans intend to place another personhood initiative on the ballot in 2014 or 2016 and Arkansas Republicans are currently pushing a personhood bill in the state legislature, even though both measures are clearly unconstitutional. And multiple red states have been absolutely obsessed with banning or heavily restricting abortion in one way or another, passing or introducing over a thousand anti-abortion measures since the 2010 midterm election.

Rand Paul was part of that wave that gave Republicans control of state legislatures and governorships and the U.S. House of Representatives. Ever since, Paul has rolled out many anti-abortion bills, all of which have failed. His newest bill is likely destined to fail as well since Democrats control the Senate.

No matter how Republicans try to spin the abortion debate, the Constitution protects a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices and the American people support that right. A small group of anti-abortion fanatics imposing their extreme religious views on 70% of the American people violates religious freedom, not to mention personal liberty and privacy. And such a threat shouldn’t be tolerated.