An unborn fetus — not having been born — is not a citizen

Dear male anti-abortion zealots — including the four Catholic men who signed the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade; and the Southern Baptists in the Louisiana legislature, 80% of whom are men. Louisiana State Rep. Danny McCormick, for example, wrote the “Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act of 2022” proposing to outlaw all abortions in Louisiana regardless of circumstances and “fully recognize the human personhood of an unborn child at all stages of development prior to birth from the moment of fertilization.” (“Maryland prepares to increase its abortion capacity as future of Roe v. Wade in doubt,” May 3)

I don’t know where to start pointing out the holes in Danny’s bill. What does “personhood” mean? If Sen. Marsha Blackburn can ask Judge Ketanji Jackson to define “woman,” it seems reasonable to ask Danny what “personhood” means. Good luck with that, Danny. Philosophers and theologians can’t agree on a definition, but apparently Danny can. Even if we could come up with a definition of personhood everyone could agree on, what rights does a fertilized egg have?

Look at Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship rights and equal protection under the law: “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.” Applying simple logic to that sentence, one must be “born” first in order to be a citizen of the United States with the rights enumerated in the Constitution. An “unborn fetus,” not having been “born” yet, is therefore NOT a citizen of the United States.

Maybe Louisiana legislators would like to rewrite the 14th Amendment to say “All human eggs fertilized in the United States are citizens.” But, wait — what if the egg is fertilized outside the United States? OK, Louisiana, how about this? “Any American egg fertilized anywhere in the world, or the solar system, or in a petri dish, is a citizen of the United States?” But I digress.

We’re not sure what your problem is, guys. Maybe you really are trying to relegate women back to the status of chattel so you won’t have to compete with women who are smarter than you. Maybe you’ve been watching too many sci-fi and comic book movies and it weakened your ability to distinguish what’s real from what isn’t. Or maybe before developing “a personal relationship with Jesus,” you should develop a personal relationship with REALITY.

In any case, please learn the meanings of these terms: child, baby, gamete, zygote, fetus. If we’re going to debate something intelligently, we need to use standard dictionary and medical definitions of words, not make up our own definitions.

You see, “unborn babies” and “unborn children” are not real things, except in your imagination, no more than square circles, soft rocks, lead balloons, cheerful pessimists or honest liars.

You can’t stick any two words together and think you’ve created something real.

— Paul Totaro, Bel Air