| As if the striking defeat of abortion bans in South Dakota and Colorado last year (and the failure of a ban in Montana to even get on the ballot) weren't clear enough, out-of-state zealots are headed for Montana this week for what they call a "Personhood Conference." (This thing is sure to be a fascinating bunch of out-of-state total extremists--reporters won't want to miss it.)
Why us? National groups are focusing their attention on the states because Congress wants no part of something this extreme. They are coming to Montana because our low population and cheap media rates make us the perfect target to force their extremist experiment on the nation without spending a lot of money. Also, we actually elected a member of the Constitution party to our state legislature who backed previous failed bans.
The thing is, they don't have local support - the Montana Right to Life, Montana Catholic Conference, and the Montana Family Foundation have all said in the press that they want no part of this.
Even Republicans are starting to come out against these efforts to force their big government extremist agenda on the rest of us though state ballot initiatives.
Women in Montana (and especially Native women) don't want to give the government control over whether and when we have children. In addition to the out-of-staters, it will be interesting to see if any local officials actually show up. The personhood conference website touts Senator Jonathan Windy Boy (D-Box Elder) as supposedly attending.
Why would Windy Boy attend? He may be confused. When asked what the reason is for his anti-abortion rights votes in the legislature Windy Boy has said "my uncle had 23 children and he told me to go forth and multiply."
I love kids as much as the next gal. However, 23 kids! That's five more kids than the Duggars. What if each of those kids all had 23 kids, how much is 23 x 23? 529 I think. And 529 x23 = 12, 167. In just three generations this family could be 12,000 strong. Two hundred eighty thousand strong in four generations.
The conference website lists Senator Windy Boy's phone number--give him a call and tell him that if he's against abortion, he should vote to increase access to affordable birth control and medically accurate sex education in his district to prevent unintended pregnancy in the first place instead of aligning himself with wing-nuts. |
