HB1572 is not an 'abortion'bill

When HB1572 passed last week, headlines across the nation declared "North Dakota House passes bill giving rights to fertilized eggs." This curious statement has been repeated by pro-abortion lobbyists and journalists who have not read the bill, but it has no basis in reality.

HB1572 is so short and simple that it can be embedded in a letter to the editor: "For purposes of interpretation of the constitution and laws of North Dakota, it is the intent of the legislative assembly that an individual, a person, when the context indicates that a reference to an individual is intended, or a human being includes any organism with the genome of homo sapiens."

In other words, a homo sapiens is a human being. It is that simple and straightforward. The phrase "fertilized egg" does not appear in the bill. Despite all of the accusations flying from the abortion lobby, the word "contraception" does not appear in this bill either. This bill simply brings our laws to recognize the scientific fact that homo sapiens are human beings.

The word "abortion" does not even appear in this bill, though Planned Parenthood's lobbyists are understandably concerned about the impact this could have on their operations. But if the pro-abortion movement has become so scared of modern science that it cannot afford for simple scientific fact to be acknowledged in our laws, then this is a legislative struggle it deserves to lose.

I encourage everyone to contact their state senator and ask that they acknowledge science and support HB1572, the personhood bill.