FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 27, 2012

Contact: Tom Guild, Democratic Nominee for Congress in Oklahoma’s Fifth District

Phone: 405-921-3811

Web: www.guildforcongress.com

 

“Personhood” Bill Co-Sponsored in Congress by Representatives Todd Akin and James Lankford is Anti-Female, Anti-Family and Anti-Life!

                Edmond, Oklahoma– Tom Guild, Democratic Nominee for Congress in the Fifth Congressional District of Oklahoma, believes the “Personhood” Bill in Congress, H.R. 374, that is co-sponsored by Representatives Todd Akin and James Lankford is Anti-Female, Anti-Family and Anti-Life!

The incumbent congressman from this district, James Lankford, is a co-sponsor of the radical H.R. 374, the “Life at Conception Act” in Congress. Todd Akin, R-MO, is also a co-sponsor of the bill.  Akin recently made sensational headlines when he said, “It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare.  If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” H.R. 374 is a “personhood bill” at the national level. It is virtually identical to bills introduce in the Oklahoma and other state legislatures and is also strikingly similar to “personhood” ballot initiatives voted down twice in Colorado and Mississippi.  It would “implement equal protection under the 14th amendment to the Constitution for each born and ‘preborn’ human person.” It would give constitutional rights to “persons” at the moment of fertilization.

H.R. 374, as a practical matter, would outlaw abortion, including in cases of rape, incest and threats to the health or life of the mother. It would outlaw most commonly used methods of birth control, including IUD’s and birth control pills.  This legislation would increase the need for abortions by increasing the number of unplanned pregnancies, because of the restrictions it places on the use of contraception. In vitro fertility clinics would be outlawed or forced to radically change their policies, so that every embryo would be implanted in a woman. This proposal even outlaws termination of dangerous ectopic pregnancies.

“The threat that this legislation poses to women’s lives and health is clear. A woman should have the right to make reproductive and health decisions such as whether to bear or begat a child.  This is protected by the fundamental right to privacy, which is older than the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.  This legislation is anti-female, anti-family and anti-life,” states Guild. Guild continues, “This type of nonsense makes Oklahoma a caricature nationally, and there are good reasons that Colorado (twice) and Mississippi voted this craziness down in statewide votes!  There are reasons that even the Oklahoma State House of Representatives refused in 2012 to hear a similar bill at the state level!”

“This bill is dangerous, uncommonly silly and almost certainly unconstitutional.  I strongly oppose this legislation and will fight this type of legislation in Congress!  Fire Congress!  Vote like your life  and health depend on it–because they do!” concluded Guild.

Guild is currently running for the congressional seat in the Fifth District of Oklahoma. For more information about Tom and his campaign, visit www.guildforcongress.com

 

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