A House Democrat to sponsor personhood amendment
Today is the first day that bills can be pre-filed for next year’s session of the General Assembly.
We’re told that two lawmakers intend to submit “personhood” resolutions – proposed constitutional amendments that would declare that life begins at fertilization, as would legal protection. All abortions would be banned; in vitro fertilization would be restricted.
Mississippi defeated a similar measure last week by 58 percent.
In the Senate, the sponsor will be Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville – no surprise, given his pro-life reputation. In the House, the sponsor will be Rick Crawford of Cedartown.
Here’s the thing: Crawford is a Democrat.
“I’m from rural Georgia,” he said. “I have to be well in step, and people have to trust me to represent their interests. It’s not a surprise to anyone that I’m pro-life. This is a discussion that is appropriate for us to have.”
Crawford is currently teaching political science at Shorter College – the school that now requires all employees to foreswear pre-marital, adulterous or homosexual relationships. Crawford also once studied to be a pastor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. So the biography fits.
But the fact that the premier piece of anti-abortion legislation in the House will be carried by a member of the minority caucus clearly is a sign that the rift between House Republican leaders and Georgia Right to Life is still going strong.
With Bobby Franklin gone to his Maker, and James Mills now in the business of sending certain state prisoners to theirs, we may have a shortage of rank-and-file House GOP members willing to be caught in the crossfire.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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271 comments Add your comment
common sense
November 16th, 2011
5:43 am
Come on morons, exactly how hard is it to understand a fertilized human egg is a human being and as such has the same human rights given by God as everyone else. Good grief what a bunch of morons are those that can’t even understand that simple fact of life. All they can do it seems here is to call folks that are honest with reality hicks and such as usual. The typical attack the messenger brain dead liberal response to everything. Read history you dummies, once you stop valuing all human life you are on the road to ruin as a society every time.
curious
November 16th, 2011
6:19 am
Will my wife be able to use the HOV lane now? She got pregnant (conceived) last night, I think.
Buckhead Boy
November 16th, 2011
6:20 am
common sense,
Sense questionable. Common definitely.
Maybe if there was serious interest shown by those of your persuasion to caring for the unwanted children we have, such flamboyant displays for facilitating more might be viewed as other than irresponsible and intrusive religiosity.
Lib in Cobb
November 16th, 2011
6:52 am
This personhood bill has so many legally troubelsome pitfalls, the lawyers will need to work overtime to get the verbage correct. For example, if a pregnant woman falls down the stairs, the fetus dies, will the woman be charged with involuntary manslaughter? The dopes in the statehouse who are sponsoring this nonsense should have an idea that they are trampling on a woman’s right. If a woman has a miscarriage is she going to be investigated as Franklin proposed,. I thought Franklin was dead. Are there really enough conservatives in GA wearing tin foil hats to get this crap passed. The conservatives want to move the hands of the clock back 100 years, to a time when women were viewed as the property of the men.
Four years ago we had Sonny Perdue praying for rain on the statehouse steps when rain was predicted that night at 70%, that little event made GA look stupid, except for the Liberals of course. This personhood bill will make GA look exceptionally stupid.
Barney Frank said, “A Republican’s life begins at conception and ends at birth”. I will add, especially in GA.
hiram bronson granbury
November 16th, 2011
7:09 am
Lib in Cobb
November 16th, 2011
6:52 am
Georgia hasn’t cornered the market on stupidity. Look at Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, Kentucky. Stupidity is pandemic.
Ol' Timer
November 16th, 2011
7:14 am
“Rational arguments usualy don’t work on religious people. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be religious people.” ~Doris Egan
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to understand that many of our Founding Fathers were deists. They greatly admired the life and teachings of Jesus — insofar as they could discern them — but as men of the Enlightenment rejected the supernatural aspects of Christianity. Today they would probably be accursed as “Secular Humanists.”
OconeeCo
November 16th, 2011
7:25 am
Moron…and really nothing else need be said.
kp
November 16th, 2011
7:49 am
With all the economic problems Georgia is going through, our boneheads in the dome still can’t focus on what needs to be done. Yes lets waste more time and our tax money.. We really need to fire all of the politicians and start over.
Lib in Cobb
November 16th, 2011
7:59 am
@Ol’ Timer: Thank you, well stated.
Lib in Cobb
November 16th, 2011
8:00 am
@OconeeCo: I will wager you are wearing a tin foil hat.
Pro-Life? While Georgia Children Go To Bed Hungry Every Night
November 16th, 2011
8:01 am
@Tom November 15th, 2011 10:07 pm
ENOUGH WITH THE QUOTES. DO YOU NOT HAVE A THOUGHT OF YOUR OWN. ANYONE CAN CUT AND PASTE!
John K
November 16th, 2011
8:06 am
So Georgia looked at Mississippi and said “Hey! You can’t corner the market on stupidity!”
But looking at details….. If I were to be found dead, there would be an investigation and autopsy. If a zygote is indeed a person, and there is a miscarriage, I’m assuming the same?
honested
November 16th, 2011
8:09 am
Lib in Cobb,
The only way to make sure there are not enough morons in the General Assembly to pass this time and money wasting, rights stripping nonsense is to CALL YOUR LEGISLATOR TODAY. If their phones don’t stop ringing and they don’t get the message NO, then they should be replaced before the court has the opportunity to set it aside.
Married for life
November 16th, 2011
8:34 am
We always hold up China and their enforced abortions to point out that state-sponsored requirements on birth control never works. What about Romania under Ceaucescu and his banning of birth control and abortions? Do we forget how many Americans adopted Romanian children to get them out of the orphanages to where they were abandoned?
http://www.ceausescu.org/ceausescu_texts/overplanned_parenthood.htm
“He began his campaign in 1966 with a decree that virtually made pregnancy a state policy. “The fetus is the property of the entire society,” Ceausescu proclaimed. “Anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity.”
It was one of the late dictator’s cruelest commands. At first Romania’s birthrate nearly doubled. But poor nutrition and inadequate prenatal care endangered many pregnant women. The country’s infant-mortality rate soard to 83 deaths in every 1,000 births (against a Western European average of less than 10 per thousand). About one in 10 babies was born underweight; newborns weighing 1,500 grams (3 pounds, 5 ounces) were classified as miscarriages and denied treatment. Unwanted survivors often ended up in orphanages.
He forbade sex education. Books on human sexuality and reproduction were classified as “state secrets,” to be used only as medical textbooks. With contraception banned, Romanians had to smuggle in condoms and birth-control pills. Though strictly illegal, abortions remained a widespread birth-control measure of last resort. Nationwide, Western sources estimate, 60 percent of all pregnancies ended in abortion or miscarriage.”
Any extreme is wrong.
Bond
November 16th, 2011
8:43 am
The question is,” at what point should the state step in to protect life”? There is life in some form all along the process.
In the end it is a moral question that government is not equipped to answer. So make government sponsored abortion illegal and let everyone else sort it out with God.
Bond
November 16th, 2011
8:47 am
… And, if life is so important to the legislators, why aren’t they spending any time addressing the state’s total abandonment of our mentally disabled?
clem
November 16th, 2011
9:07 am
no matter what the topic for the blog, i reiterate cain is a dolt.
yellowdog
November 16th, 2011
9:08 am
yet another MAN insinuating himself into women’s bodies – and the conservatives continuing to add to big government this time into our ovaries. get a grip….one wonders what women are doing here living in georgia. we are the laughing stock. people are hungry and they want personhood to become law? piety and ignorance. men have no rights to this……….
td
November 16th, 2011
9:11 am
Buckhead Boy
November 16th, 2011
6:20 am
common sense,
Sense questionable. Common definitely.
Maybe if there was serious interest shown by those of your persuasion to caring for the unwanted children we have, such flamboyant displays for facilitating more might be viewed as other than irresponsible and intrusive religiosity.
You my friend sound like children are some kind of toy or furniture. Children are a responsibility for the two people created the life. We have cheapen life so much and taken out the responsibility part of raisin children it is no wonder our jails are filled today. If two people make the choice to sleep together then they must take the responsibility of what comes out of their actions.
carlosgvv
November 16th, 2011
9:16 am
When all these “personhood” politicians start to show real concern for the people ALREADY born, I will listen to them. As it is now, once the baby is born, they could not possibly care less what it’s fate may be.
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
9:22 am
“You my friend sound like children are some kind of toy or furniture. Children are a responsibility for the two people created the life. We have cheapen life so much and taken out the responsibility part of raisin children it is no wonder our jails are filled today. If two people make the choice to sleep together then they must take the responsibility of what comes out of their actions.”
And what happens to the child when they don’t, as is often the case. Eff ‘em, right? I mean once they’re born they’re reduced to “welfare queens, slackers, unAmerican deadbeats”, right? No Tanf for them, no welfare… no assistance at all, period. After all they’re in the spot they’re in because of their own choices, right?
Hypocritical ideological infantile thinking. Reality is a bitch, but most of us live with it
Bond
November 16th, 2011
9:23 am
Spoke well Carlos
GT/MIT
November 16th, 2011
9:25 am
@ BILLY MAYS HERE:
Billy old boy I’ve read through the comments here and they’re in general, typical for Galloway’s blog. Your’s however stand out, I can’t decide where you might be from, or for that matter, I can’t even decide what you are. For sure you can’t have roots in Georgia, we’re much to ignorant, as a matter of fact, I doubt you’re from anywhere in the South, the land of the unwashed masses. So, give me a hint old boy, just where were you hatched??
I’m really not an avid antiabortionist, I tend to believe that if a child is not wanted it might be better off not born. But Billy in your case I think, ah, well lets just say that their are individuals that should have been aborted.
John K
November 16th, 2011
9:26 am
Good comments Carlos. I wonder if these personhood folks would be willing to raise their taxes to pay for additional free & reduced lunches?
Likewise, I wonder how many put their money where their mouth is and adopt?
Married for life
November 16th, 2011
9:27 am
Mudfoot:
Reality, no. Stereotypes, yes. It appears in your way of thinking (?), stereotypes should dictate policy.
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
9:34 am
MFL
Whatever. Keep living in denial. Keep ignoring tha fact that the GOP hates disadvantaged children but advocates creating as many of them as possible. The only people who will suffer are those kids, and if you ever see ‘em from your house you’ll just call the cops and have those deadbeat lowlifes removed from your sight, right? Deny it all day if you like, but don’t think for an instant that any readers assign any credibility to any of your posts (except for your brethren also living in denial)
td
November 16th, 2011
9:39 am
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
9:22 am
If a parent does not want to raise a child then you the state is forced to take that child into custody to raise it. This should not relieve those parents of their responsibility to pay for said child. This is the problem with the current system. We (the people) do not demand our the responsibility. The people should not have any luxury in life(cell phone, cable tv, expensive clothes…) until the bills are paid for the care of the child. Those parents should not be able to reproduce any longer if they can not pay care for the children they produce. Let me be crude for a moment: If you are a man you should be told early in life that if you produce a child and do not take care of the child then you will have it cut off.
It is not conservatives that are unwilling to take the necessary steps to make sure parents take the responsibility for their actions it is you libs that will not allow conservatives to take the necessary steps.
td
November 16th, 2011
9:41 am
GT/MIT
November 16th, 2011
9:25 am
I will not go so far as should have been aborted but I would say that good ole Billy should not ever reproduce.
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
9:49 am
td
Thanks for illustrating “living in denial”. Great job
td
November 16th, 2011
9:49 am
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
9:34 am
No my friend. To turn a person into an entitlement mentality and to see the hopelessness and not have a meaningful life is by far the worse punishment one can give to another human being. The liberal “great society” has ruined millions of lives in this country by forcing millions of people to suffer a lifetime of hopelessness.
You need to go into a welfare office and just look into the eyes of a middle aged person that has known nothing but welfare. When you see that look non accomplishment and hopelessness you will cry. If you do not then you my friend have no heart.
td
November 16th, 2011
9:52 am
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
9:49 am
td
Thanks for illustrating “living in denial”. Great job
Please tell me how I am living in denial? Denial of what? I really want to be educated on what we should be doing?
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
9:58 am
Tom is not a Christian. What are you Tom? You have already pretended to be conservative.
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
9:59 am
For those who so support the murder of the innocent unborn: When does the simple cell division lead to an independent human heart beating?
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
10:00 am
carlos – how long have you been a soclialist/communist? Why is any politician responsible for the conduct of a citizens life/welfare? That is not an American ideal.
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
10:02 am
yellowdog – you seem quite good at parroting feministic dogma. Why do you think women should murder the innocent for convenience?
Jon Lester
November 16th, 2011
10:03 am
How do we make people any better at choosing their partners?
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
10:05 am
kp – what would you have the pols do? Raise taxes & give more money to those unemployed? This is a standard recession after and easy money era. What do you wish them to do?
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
10:06 am
Lester – you don’t – but, it would be beneficial if there was a social stigma on getting pregnant outside of marriage. OR, with little assistance, those who do such stupid things would wallow in their misery, and abject example for all to disavow that type of behavior.
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
10:09 am
Liberals look at problems in the macro, and thus rationalize spending huge sums of $$ to improve those macro statistics minutely. They also REFUSE to assign to an individual accountability for their decisions (thus LBJ’s Great Society blamed society for disenfranchisement & exploitation of the poor, thus resulting in their condition – this is a grossly false premise, as 4 decades of “assistance” has woefully proven). Most of poverty today is self induced.
clem
November 16th, 2011
10:10 am
apparently, newt has bad memory too about 1.6 million he got from freddie mac for history lessons…..geez
he has more baggage than a cruise ship
Married for life
November 16th, 2011
10:13 am
Mudfoot–I’m a liberal but I’m glad when liberals and conservatives both agree that government intrusion in personal decisions should be kept from happening. Education and choice should always be paramount in government policymaking idealogies.
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
10:16 am
Denial of the fact that some humans just aren’t as responsible as others, some bordering on being sociopaths. The fact that policing these people is not nearly as simple or financially feasible as you seem to believe. Denial of the fact that we can’t cut off the penis’ of other humans for being deadbeats (tho my mother’s oft-repeated line of “keep it in your pants or I’ll rip it off” had great effect, not everyone has my mother at home) The fact that outlawing abortion will create many, many more children who suffer the horrible life you describe. Denial of the fact that in some cases not being born in the first place is best overall for all involved including the child. Denial of the fact that the “family values” party cares nought for families or children if they are not entirely self-supporting and views these people as lesser beings. The fact that this is not your body, your family or your life you speak of and subsequently you have no right to interfere (especially if you’re a “keep gov’t out of our lives” republican).
I work with these people every week. I KNOW some of them. I see with my own eyes that most are people who truly want to improve their lives and those of their children. I am also aware that there are those who work the system and get far too much gov’t aid relative to the effort they put forth to better themselves, I’m just not willing to write-off the entirety of poor people because of that… I can’t justify that in my mind and dismiss this large group of people as worthless and irrelevant like many so-called “compassionate conservatives” I know do. I read and hear these generalized stereotypes and the derision they offer and have to wonder whether those offering such judgements have ever met any of these people they’re so quick to label and dismiss. I believe if they had they would not be so quick to judge
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
10:26 am
MFL
I’m a mongrel regarding political views and I agree with your posted statement
double
November 16th, 2011
10:31 am
TD,GM,BM you all sound same to me.
td
November 16th, 2011
10:46 am
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
10:16 am
Denial of the fact that some humans just aren’t as responsible as others
Responsibility will not happen without expectations and consequences for failure to comply. What expectations do we set for the poor? What are the consequences for making poor decisions and what do we do for failure to comply with the rules? My children are not motivated to make good grades in school but they know that is my expectation and there are consequences for failure to comply with my expectation.
I too have worked with the poor. I know what is allowed and what is not allowed and I can tell you setting expectations is not allowed. Enforcing conseuences is not allowed.
“Denial of the fact that we can’t cut off the penis’ of other humans for being deadbeats”
This is probably a little harsh but we could do it if we (the people) had the will too. Vasectomy and tube tying is surely not impossible for parents who choose not to take care of children they create. I have talked to and heard the most liberal people in the world that agree with this one.
“The fact that outlawing abortion will create many, many more children who suffer the horrible life you describe.”
Not if there was the expectation set that children would be cared for and there were consequences for not caring for your children. Only when we do not have expectations is when your statement is true.
“Denial of the fact that the “family values” party cares nought for families or children”
I will submit that setting expectations and having consequences is a purer form of love and caring then to just provide for the poor. A loving parent will not just provide for a child without setting the expectations for them to be a better human being.
“The fact that this is not your body, your family or your life you speak of and subsequently you have no right to interfere”
If you come into a government office and have an expectation of the government taking care of you then you do have to follow the rules the government sets. This is the liberal ideal that has forced all these millions of fellow Americans to live in hopelessness for more than 50 years now.
John
November 16th, 2011
10:55 am
All of us in Floyd County are thankful that we will not be in either legislator’s district from now on.
Mudfoot
November 16th, 2011
11:04 am
td
On most points I will agree to disagree, but I have to ask who decides who gets castrated?
mum
November 16th, 2011
11:05 am
Why are you men insinuating yourselves into our wombs anyway? Men have limited involvement in the entire process but they want to call the shots. The old geezers who are pushing this also have a very negative view about progressive women.
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
11:09 am
And Obama was intentionally, desperately, baggage free. How is that possible? Supreme manipulation of the press?
Paddy O
November 16th, 2011
11:12 am
mudfoot – your mimicing of the all knowing supreme being is comical. You also appear to be either communist or socialist. Why is the gov’t responsible for the conduct of the governed, regardless of that individuals’ ineptitude? To keep ivory tower liberals from seeing that side of humanity in their Utopia?