This was the New York Times today. It bears noting. The United States of America is a secular nation whereby every citizen should have a voice.
Fetus are citizens.
The Evangelical Right Wing Neocons currently occupying the White House and evidently police departments in Ohio are attempting to build a case of "Fetal Rights." There is no such thing. There never will be. The Lacy Peterson case was widely viewed by the media and was "W"rongly decided. While the fetus died because 'it's' mother did, it had no 'right to a murder trial' separate from Lacy's trial. Allowing 'the fetus' to carry weight in sentencing is correct, but, there were NOT two charges of murder that should have been leveled, but, ONLY ONE and that one was of a woman pregnant.
The move toward 'fetal rights' is dangerous and carries with it brevity to women's rights that should never appear anywhere in a court of law. The woman mentioned that shot herself could have died. Didn't care if she did and was in dire need of professional intervention. It was a tragedy, a personal tragedy for her and anyone who loved her enough to care, but, that is where it ends. Women's lives matter over and above their ability to procreate !
...In the 1790s, in the waters off Tripoli, pirates were making sport of American shipping near the Barbary Coast. Toward the end of his second term, Washington sent Joel Barlow, the diplomat-poet, to Tripoli to settle matters, and the resulting treaty, finished after Washington left office, bought a few years of peace. Article 11 of this long-ago document says that “as the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,” there should be no cause for conflict over differences of “religious opinion” between countries....
