When Vermonters, sorry – Democrats go to the polls in November they’ll have an opportunity to “enshrine” the state’s “values” by making conception to birth abortion a constitutional right.
Article 22. [Personal reproductive liberty] That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.
A few thoughts?
In this context, we see an enumerated right. An individual right. The word “individual” means a person and a person is protected as indicated in Prop 5.
Chapter I, Article 1 declares “That all persons are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights.”
Chapter I, Article 7 states “That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people.” The core value reflected in Article 7 is that all people should be afforded all the benefits and protections bestowed by the government, and that the government should not confer special advantages upon the privileged. This amendment would reassert the principles of equality and personal liberty reflected in Articles 1 and 7 and ensure that government does not create or perpetuate the legal, social, or economic inferiority of any class of people.
There are many references to “people,” and those people have rights. And that’s not even all of them.
What if the unborn are, in some future legal context, defined as people? Article 22 would provide the unborn with “an individual right to personal reproductive autonomy [that] is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed.”
You can’t abort them if they have these rights “unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
I only bring it up because proponents are hellbent on creating a bulletproof guaranteed right to execute the unborn in perpetuity. Abortions forever if you want them. Have the baby kill the baby however you’d like to handle it.
But it’s not bulletproof.
Just sayin’.