If you live in Colorado, and are planning on voting, please, please, please vote NO on Amendment 48!
I understand if you are against abortion. I can appreciate your stance. And if you want to try to outlaw abortion, then go after Roe v. Wade on a federal level. But damn it, don't you dare try to say that personhood should be defined at conception. Do you realize what this does? Have you any idea of the unintended consequences this amendment would have on people like me?
You see, I'm trying to have a baby. That's right, we're trying to conceive. You may be thinking that I should like this proposed amendment, but I don't. I'll tell you why.
This proposed amendment will prohibit some of the in vitro fertilization treatments that I will be going through to become pregnant. You see, the old fashioned way of my husband and I having sex just doesn't lead to us being able to conceive. I have what is called ovarian reserve failure, or in simple terms, my eggs are old, and therefore, will not allow me to be able to have a child of my own. In order for me to carry a child, I will have to have a woman donate her eggs to me.
When her eggs are harvested, they will be inseminated with my husband's sperm. Our hope is that all of the eggs will fertilize and that we will be able to transfer an appropriate number into my uterus, where the ultimate goal is to become pregnant with a singleton, or a single baby.
You may be thinking "That's great!" However, if this bill passes, we have at least two conundrums we'll be facing. If the doctors do transfer more than one embryo into my uterus, but I only become pregnant with one baby, my doctors and I could be held civilly (and possibly criminally) liable for the embryos that didn't survive.
Also, if we have extra embryos that we don't transfer the first time and we are able to freeze for future use, if they do not survive the thaw, we'd be in trouble as well. Or, if we get all the babies we want and still have extra embryos left over, we couldn't just let them go naturally. We'd be in violation of the law.
Now is this what you would want to happen? Would you want a couple who so desperately want to have a child to be held liable for an embryo that doesn't actually grow into a live human being? Or say that, God forbid, we do get pregnant, but I have a miscarriage. Should I be held liable for the death of that child? That's what Amendment 48 would do.
I am a Christian, and while I do not think that abortion should be used as a form of birth control, I do think that it should be available for use when a woman is raped, a victim of incest, or when the woman's health is at stake if she should continue the pregnancy. But I am also an American, and I firmly believe that each person has the freedom to choose their own religion, and if a woman does not think or feel that abortion is wrong, who am I to tell her differently? I certainly don't want someone else telling me what I can and cannot do regarding my health or medical procedures I may have.
So please, I ask that you vote NO on Amendment 48 in the upcoming general election on November 4, 2008, in Colorado. By doing so, you are helping to ensure that I can continue my pursuit of trying to have a child using in vitro fertilization.
