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A bill introduced by nine Republican state lawmakers in Iowa on Wednesday would define abortion as "murder," sending doctors and raped women who terminate pregnancies to jail.

State Rep. Tom Shaw says that he authored House File 138 to protect human life, whether “you’re a zygote, an infant, a teenager or an adult.”

The bill defines a "person" as "an individual human being, without regard to age of development, from the moment of conception, when a zygote is formed, until natural death."

"Murder includes killing another person through any means that terminates the life of the other person including but not limited to the use of abortion-inducing drugs," the measure states without making any exceptions for rape or incest.

Republican state Rep. Rob Bacon, who is co-sponsoring the bill, told the Ames Tribune that he wanted to "protect the life of the unborn" because "[t]here’s still some of us that believe life begins at conception."

During a Wednesday interview with Denver Bible Church pastor Bob Enyart, Shaw explained that defining a fertilized egg as a "person" in Iowa's murder statute "just simplifies everything."

"So when anyone has any questions towards us -- the war on women, are you doing this, are you doing that? -- no, it's a simple response," he insisted. "We are only defining who a person is."

"There was a lot of concern with former bills about who would be charged, what would they be charged with... This puts it in the hands of county attorneys, just like any other murder investigation. A person is a person."

According to Democratic state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, the new definition of murder would mean that women were jailed if they had an abortion after being raped or to save their own lives.

"We’re talking about the victim of rape would go to prison along with her rapist," she told the Tribune. “It’s very hard to understand the feeling behind it. It’s a health care issue, I mean, sometimes in order to save someone’s life a woman could possibly need an abortion. When we talk about being pro-life, my new question is ‘whose life?’”

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland President Jill June called the effort to restrict abortion rights "the most extreme yet."

"This bill would imprison a woman and her doctor for attempting an abortion," June said in a statement on Wednesday. “A victim of rape or incest would be forced to carry a pregnancy or be put in jail, just like her assailant. Extremists pushing this bill are blinded by their ideology to eliminate abortion, and do not realize how this bill could hurt women and families in our state.”

Even if Shaw's bill makes it out of committee, it would have virtually no chance to pass in Iowa's Democratically-controlled Senate.

(h/t: Political Wire)

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A Republican lawmaker in Alabama says that he wants to pursue a so-called "personhood" bill outlawing abortion rights for women because the Bible proves that a fetus "is life inside of a mother," but he's not sure if "aborted babies" are going to Heaven or Hell.

In a recent interview with the Times-Journal, state Sen. Shadrack McGill lamented that "you can be charged up to $250,000 for destroying an eagle egg, but you can destroy babies in the womb?"

McGill explained that his interpretation of Psalm 22 made it clear that life began at fertilization.

"Just based on the Scripture alone, the Psalm that talks about God knowing us before he placed us in our mother’s womb, is enough for me to know that that is a life inside of a mother," he said.

"So my question concerning aborted babies is, where do they go, heaven or hell?"

State Sen. Phil Williams (R), who has sponsored "personhood" bills during the last two legislative sessions, recently told The Anniston Star that he was reluctant to bring it up again.

Past bills had reportedly failed because many worried that they would have given rights to embyros created in fertility clinics, effectively banning in-vitro fertilization as well as some forms of contraception.

"I sympathize with the folks who have had to go the expensive route of the in-vitro process, and thank God for that knowledge that the doctors possess," McGill opined to the Times-Journal. "My understanding of that process is they fertilize 10 eggs in a petri dish. Basically they take three of the strongest and insert those into the womb, into the mother, and pray for the best."

"If the mother conceives, then what do you do with the seven remaining fertilized eggs?" he pointed out, adding that he had suggested that Williams reword the bill to include only "fertilization inside the mother’s womb."

"And I never had peace about that," McGill admitted. “That’s what we tried and that failed.”

The Republican lawmaker hoped that future legislation would force doctors to implant all fertilized eggs in the potential mother.

“That union between the sperm and the egg is where life begins, and maybe where God places his spirit inside that child, so to speak,” McGill insisted. “Therefore, I would hope that the legislation that we push in the future would state that all the eggs fertilized need to be placed in the mother’s womb.”

(h/t: Salon, RH Reality Check)

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From The Ed Show this Tuesday, the war on women's health continues:

Republicans are still trying to silence Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown student who appeared on The Ed Show last week. First, they wouldn't let her or any other woman testify at a birth control hearing. Now Democrats are holding their own hearing with Fluke, but refuse to televise it!

Terry O’Neill, President of the National Organization for Women, Lizz Winstead, comedian and co-creator of The Daily Show and Krystal Ball, Democratic strategist and former candidate for U.S. Congress, comment on the on-going Republican war on women’s health.

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Mediaite's Tommy Christopher actually summed up this segment from this Saturday's ABC GOP debate quite nicely where he explained some of Mitt Romney's feigned ignorance on the issues of privacy, women's reproductive rights and whether states should be allowed to ban contraception.

Romney Trips On Contraception Question: ‘It’s Working Just Fine, Just Leave It Alone’:

At tonight’s ABC News/WMUR Republican presidential debate at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney stumbled badly on a Constitutional question from moderator George Stephanopoulos, first trying to punt it to “our Constitutionalist” Ron Paul, then demonstrating painful ignorance about the issues of privacy and banning contraception. To his credit, George pursued him like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. The Republican crowd was none too pleased with the line of questioning, booing Stephanopoulos several times.

As Christopher pointed out, Romney pretended not to know that a number of states have introduced "personhood" laws that could ban most forms of birth control and Stephanopoulos had to answer Romney's question for him when he asked this:

Then Romney displayed the fruits of that education. “Has the Supreme Court decided states do not have the right to provide contraception?” he asked.

Oof. The first thing you learn in law school is never to ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.

“Yes,” Stephanopoulos answered, “they have. ’65, Griswold v. Connecticut.”

What Christopher failed to note is that Mitt Romney has actually been confronted on the issue of defining life as beginning at conception and the fact that it would ban most forms of birth control at a town hall meeting back in October, which makes his little act of his here particularly egregious.

Here's more for a trip down the memory hole that Mitt Romney has pretended to forget about during this debate from October of last year -- Iowa Woman Schools Romney on Anti-Abortion Amendment and Birth Control:

Continue reading »

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Tuesday declared that had undergone a "transformation" and no longer supported abortion in cases of rape or incest.

During a campaign event in Iowa, Full Faith Christian Center pastor Joshua Verwers noted that Perry used to believe that abortion was acceptable for victims of rape and incest, but the Texas governor had recently signed a Personhood USA pledge that says abortion should be illegal in all cases.

"To me it seems kind of like a contradiction where you were a month ago," Verwers said.

"You're seeing a transformation," Perry explained. "That transformation was after watching the DVD Gift of Life. And I really started giving some thought about the issue of rape and incest."

Earlier this month, Perry and several other GOP candidates attended a screening of The Gift of Life, which was produced by Citizens United and narrated by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R).

"All I can tell you was God was working on my heart," Perry remarked.

It wasn't clear from his answer if the candidate still supports abortion when it is necessary to save the life of the mother.

A recent Public Policy Polling survey found that in Iowa, Perry is trailing Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses.

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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich acknowledged on Thursday that his support for a "fetal personhood" constitutional amendment would make some forms of birth control illegal.

Earlier in the week, the candidate had signed a pledge (PDF) from the group Personhood USA that declared he would "support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and endorse legislation to make clear the 14th Amendment protections apply to unborn children."

At a campaign event in Fort Dodge, Iowa Thursday, a young woman asked Gingrich what this meant for birth control.

"I'm just a little concerned because I personally use birth control," the woman explained. "And some forms of birth control would be outlawed if those personhood laws became the law of the land. So, do you support birth control, all forms of birth control?"

"Any kind of pre-conception birth control would be legal," Gingrich replied. "But I think post-conception birth control would be a form of abortion."

"So, you don't support that?" the woman wondered.

"No, I don't support abortion," Gingrich said.

"Or birth control?" the woman pressed.

"I said pre-conception birth control is perfectly appropriate," Gingrich insisted. "And there's lots of forms of pre-conception birth control."

The New York Times determined that a similar plan in Mississippi to declare a fertilized egg a legal person, also promoted by Personhood USA, would have banned some forms of birth control like IUDs and morning-after pills.

Personhood amendments have failed in Mississippi and every other state where they have been on the ballot.

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A woman in Iowa on Thursday gave Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney a lesson in why his support for a state constitutional amendment to define life as beginning at conception would have effectively ended up banning many forms of birth control.

Earlier this month, the candidate told Fox News host and evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee that he would have supported a state constitutional amendment to ban abortion if it would have prevented abortions from being covered by the health care law he enacted while serving as the governor of Massachusetts.

"Would you have supported a constitutional amendment that would have established definition of life beginning of life at conception?" Huckabee asked.

"Absolutely," Romney replied.

At a town hall event in Sioux City, Iowa Thursday, a woman told Romney that she was concerned about what this meant for hormonal birth control.

"That would essentially mean banning most forms of birth control," she noted. "Ninety-eight percent of American women, including me, use birth control. So, could you help me understand why you oppose the use of birth control?"

"I don't," Romney declared. "Life begins at conception; birth control prevents conception."

"What I believe is the right course as regards to abortion and life is that I would like to see the Supreme Court return this right to the states and let states create their own legislation with regards to life. That's my view. And states will make different decisions which is their right to do so. And my view is that I'm not out campaigning for an amendment of some kind. I am campaigning to see justices ultimately appointed to the Supreme Court that will follow the Constitution, return to the states the right to make decision themselves."

Romney's plan to "return the right to the states" would allow them to enforce life-begins-at-conception laws, effectively banning the forms of birth control that he claims not to be against.

"I don't know if you want to have some staff look into this, but hormonal forms of birth control work a little differently," the woman pointed out. "They actually prevent implantation, not conception. So, it would ban hormonal forms of birth control which is what most women use."

"As someone who uses birth control, this is a very terrifying prospect for me so I hope that you can, you know, look into that."

In fact, many anti-abortion advocates define conception and fertilization as the same thing.

"At the moment of conception, a male sperm unites with a female ovum," according to the Pro-Life Action League. "After fertilization, the tiny human being travels down the fallopian tube. Implantation, which occurs 8 to 10 days after fertilization, refers to the point at which the baby (now scientifically referred to as an "embryo"), implants in the mother's uterus and begins to draw nourishment."

A 2005 Guttmacher Institute report found that 18 states, including Massachusetts, defined pregnancy as beginning with fertilization or conception.

"[I]t is likely that the proponents of the state laws may have been unaware of how the various contraceptive methods actually work, and were probably not taking aim at them directly," the report states. "On the other hand, many in the antiabortion movement clearly understand the modes of action for contraceptive methods, especially the hormonal methods. Understanding that, they have to know that the end result of enforcing a definition that pregnancy begins at fertilization would implicate not just some hormonal methods, but all of them."

The fringe anti-abortion group Personhood USA has recently been successful at getting more states to take up their legislation that defines life as beginning at fertilization.