A House Joint Resolution (HJR 2003) was filed in the Iowa House today by 16 Representatives. It proposes an amendment to the Iowa Constitution to specify that the right of life is paramount and most fundamental right of every person (I seem to remember reading that in one of our founding documents, hmmmm…). This calls for personhood to be applied to all human beings regardless of where they are at in their biological development.
The right to life is the paramount and most fundamental right of every person. With respect to the fundamental and inalienable rights of all persons guaranteed in this Constitution, the word “person’ applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, health, function, physical or mental dependency, or method of reproduction, whether in vivo or in vitro, from the beginning of their biological development, including the single-cell human embryo.
This House Joint Resolution was cosponsored by: Representatives Dwayne Alons (R-Hull), Royd Chambers (R-Sheldon), Betty DeBoef (R-What Cheer), Chris Hagenow (R-Windsor Heights), Daniel Huseman (R-Aurelia), Kevin Koester (R-Ankeny), Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton), Mike May (R-Spirit Lake), Delores Mertz (D-Ottosen), Henry Rayhons (R-Garner), Jason Schultz (R-Schleswig), Chuck Soderberg (R-Le Mars), Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola), Annette Sweeney (R-Alden), and Matt Windschitl (R-Missouri Valley).
This resolution addresses the fundamental question in the abortion debate, all others are peripheral, when does life begin? If personhood, if life begins at conception, there is no reasonable argument that justifies abortion. Personhood matters. Personhood USA recently posted a video that included oral arguments from Roe v. Wade which demonstrates how a state personhood amendment could bypass Roe.
Even if this gets killed in committee, this is the type of debate that those of us who are pro-life need to engage in. I for one hope that this will be debated on the Iowa House floor.
