Professor Richardson summarizes the Idaho GOP’s platform concerning fetuses:
And yet, on Friday, by a 4-to-1 margin, delegates to the Republican Party convention in Idaho rejected an amendment to their platform that would have permitted an abortion to save the life of the mother. The platform considers any fertilized egg a person from the moment of fertilization, even before implantation, and criminalizes abortion from that moment on as murder. The delegates did agree to exempt miscarriage from criminalization.
So, when a fetus threatens the life of the expectant mother – say, an ectopic pregnancy – should the fetus be charged with attempted murder? Threats to the life of the mother?
The fetus is a person according to them, after all.
Or should we consider the fetus, which lacks cognition and even a brain, to be possessed by some demon that requires exorcism? Should those pregnancies that endanger the health and life of the expectant mother be attended by a cleric “qualified” to exorcise demons?
Precautionary exorcisms? Sounds like a windfall for the ambitious cleric. I sense online classes in Exorcisms are an imminent business opportunity.
Serious questions. Real beard pullers, I must say.
