JODI JACOBSON, jacobsonjodie at gmail.com, @jljacobson
Jacobson is president and editor-in-chief for RH Reality Check. She just wrote the piece “As Romney and Ryan Dissemble, RNC Prepares Radical Anti-Choice Platform Based on Personhood,” which states: “As of today, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan may find themselves in a wee bit of a bind.
“For the past two days, the pair have been running around trying to assure the press and ultimately women voters that they really do believe in ‘real rape,’ not just ‘legitimate rape,’ that they are not as misogynistic as Missouri Rep. Todd Akin, and that, of course, a Romney-Ryan administration would never eliminate rape and incest exceptions for abortion.
“And, now it appears that, all the while, the people really in charge of the GOP — fundamentalist anti-choicers among them — have been writing a party platform that not only makes all of that a lie, but is in effect a promise to make the personhood of fertilized eggs the law of the land.
“The draft official platform strongly supports a ‘a human life amendment’ to the Constitution:
“‘Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,’ the draft platform declares. ‘We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.’
“Let’s be very, very clear that such an amendment — which Mitt Romney has said unequivocally he would sign — would not only criminalize abortions of any kind for any reason, but also would outlaw many forms of contraception, in-vitro fertilization, and treatment of pregnant women with life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Moreover, it would also criminalize miscarriage.”
