We Talked About Personhood!

8/3/2019 We Talked About Personhood!

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Charmaine Yoest

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A Weekly Column By Walter B. Hoye II

Conflict Of

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In the abortion debate, is there a "Conflict of Interest"within the Black community and among her leaders?

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We Talked About Personhood!

"State protection of the unborn child as a person is no longer a novel thing It grows year by year, state by state. And the

public supports it." (FORSYTHE: Saving Personhood Growing Number Of States Protects The Unborn Child)

I recently asked for and enjoyed a meeting with Charmaine

Yoest, President and CEO of Americans United For Life 1

and Clarke D. Forsythe, Senior Legal Counsel with

Americans United for Life 2 and author of Politics for the

Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public

Square (2009). We talked about Personhood, the Pro-Life

strategy that is focused on the child in the womb's right to

the privileges of Personhood from the beginning of our

biological development, regardless of the means by which we are procreated,

without exception. We talked about the twenty-five (25) cases and briefs

attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade including those cases and briefs arguing

14th Amendment Personhood and an Americans United for Life effort dating

as far back as 1971. We talked about Personhood in terms of a federal life

amendment which in my opinion is the final chapter of the Civil Rights

movement. Because we talked and listened to each other's heart for Christ'ssake and for the sake of saving the lives of women and children, horribly hurt

by the incontestable evil of abortion, we found common ground. Thank you

Charmaine.

In the course of our discussions Clarke Forsythe shared an Op-Ed regarding

Personhood he had written and at the time was not published. Well, I am glad

to report that it was recently published by the Washington Times on Friday,

October 21st, 2011. In his very informative Op-Ed, Forsythe succinctly


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Clark D. Forsythe

communicates the history and veracity of Personhood. Thank you Clarke.

While I will use this information in my efforts to promote Personhood, I publish

it here and now for your review and consideration.

FORSYTHE: Saving Personhood

"These laws (i.e., "Personhood" legislation) have grown, and they are popular. Prosecutors use them, and juries regularly

enforce them." (Clarke Forsythe, Senior Legal Counsel with Americans United for Life)

"The Alabama Supreme Court's unanimous decision lastmonth, in a case called Mack v. Carmack, might surprise

some Americans.

The court held that an unborn child at any time of

pregnancy is a person protected by Alabama's wrongful

death laws. Wrongful death statutes which virtually every

state has allow family members to sue for money

damages for the death of a 'person.'

In reaching their decision, the Justices relied on the Alabama fetal homicide

(unborn victims of violence) law passed in Alabama in 2006, reasoning that

since the fetal homicide law sort of the criminal counterpart to the wrongful

death law protected the unborn child as a human being throughout

pregnancy, the wrongful death law to be consistent should do so as well.

The principle is old, though the specific legal means of protecting human life

has evolved.

In 1765, William Blackstone, the leading authority on the English common law,

wrote: 'Life is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in

every individual; and it begins in contemplation of law as soon as an

infant is able to stir in the mother's womb.'

One of the first Supreme Court Justices, James Wilson, wrote in the 1790s,

'With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its

commencement to its close, is protected by the common law.'

The decision in Mack v. Carmack rests on a growing body of statutory and

case law in the states. Prenatal injury law, wrongful death law, and fetalhomicide law have increasingly protected the unborn child. 38 states now

have fetal homicide laws, and 28 of those states extend protection from

conception. 38 states have wrongful death laws that protect the unborn child.

These laws have grown and they are popular. Prosecutors use them,

and juries regularly enforce these laws. These laws can apply and

many do apply at any stage of pregnancy to protect the unborn child.


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Virtually every state allows a prenatal-injury suit for any injury after

conception, demonstrating that the law treats the life of a human being as

beginning at conception.

In addition to these laws, states have enacted other laws protecting the

unborn child as a person. Arkansas passed Amendment 68 back in the

1980's, which states: 'the policy of Arkansas is to protect the life of every

unborn child from conception until birth.'

All of this shows that although the November ballot measure in Mississippi

has drawn media attention as unusual, legal protection for the unborn child as

a person has been a growing phenomenon for years across the states.

State protection of the unborn child as a person is no longer a novel thing. It

grows year by year, state by state, and the public supports it.

Far from being newly minted in Mississippi, the personhood of the unborn

child is a movement as old as English common law with a long tradition of

acknowledging the value that such children hold for their expectant parents

and family." 3

California Human Rights Amendment

"Personhood is the Final Chapter In The Civil Rights Movement. Personhood is what the Pro-Life Movement looks like

victorious." (Walter B. Hoye II, Founder and President of the CaliforniaCivil RightsMovement)

Personhood is a righteous movement

working to respect the God-given right

to life by recognizing all human beings

as persons who are "created in the

image of God" from the beginning of

their biological development, without

exceptions. Personhood focuses the

discussion on the baby's entitlement to rights of personhood and the

inhumanity of anything less. Personhood allows voters to see that abortion is

too great an evil to be left to individual discretion and personal choice.

Personhood believes all human life should be protected by love and by law.

Blackstone is right. "Life is the immediate gift of God and it begins in

contemplation of law as soon as an infant is able to stir in the mother's womb."Wilson is right, " human life, from its commencement to its close, is

protected by the common law." Forsythe is right. "State protection of the

unborn child as a person is no longer a novel thing. It grows year by year,

state by state, and the public supports it." Personhood is right. Personhood

is the truth which dwells within us and will be with us forever. The California

Human RightsAmendment is right. "The term 'person' applies only to all

living human beings from the beginning of their biological development as

human organisms regardless of the means by which they were procreated,


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method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function,

or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability." 4

For the "truth's sake" 5 alone, regardless of our pragmatic preferences or

personal proclivities, we should all be standing together and fighting together

for Personhood. For "love's sake" 6 I beseech us in the words of the great

Negro Spiritual to "Walk together," "talk together," "sing together," "shout

together," "mourn and never tire" together because "there's a great camp

meeting in the promised land." 7

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):

1. Americans United for Life (http://www.aul.org).

2. Ibid.

3. Clarke D. Forsythe, The Washington Times (http://bit.ly/oAXW00).

4. The language of the 2012 California Human Rights Amendment (http://www.iamaperson.us).

5. II John 1:2 (KJV).

6. Philemon 1:9 (KJV).

7. "Walk Together Children", NegroSpirituals.Com (http://bit.ly/mV6py4).

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We Talked About Personhood!