Stopping Systematic Murder: The Pro-life Personhood Amendment

For those of you who live in Florida, a unique opportunity is emerging for us. A pro-life group has gotten a new key supporter (some guy named Tony Perkins, I think) who is apparently a big deal. This means that we may soon be voting on the pro-life personhood amendment (by soon, I mean that petitions will be collected from now until the end of 2013, therefore we could be voting on this in 2014). This amendment to the Florida state constitution, similar to Mississippi's failed Initiative 26, would ban all abortions by defining personhood as starting at conception. Under this amendment, all abortions would be illegal save those that are determined by qualified doctors to be necessary to save the life of the mother. In fact, in most cases, two doctors would have to sign a statement saying that the woman is in real danger if she doesn't get an abortion. Then she could get one. Any doctor that performs an abortion without taking the proper measures first could be charged with murder.
This is the most amazing opportunity I've ever seen. We can stop the bloodshed. It is now within our grasp to end, at least in our own state, the most horrific practice in modern America. The enormity of this occasion cannot be overstated. The routine murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings could be stopped. I cannot express the sheer exuberance I experience at this thought. It makes me giddy.
Now, you are probably wondering what we can do about this. Well, we can contact our legislators and tell them to support for the amendment. We can beg and plead, tell them stories, show them pictures, threaten to vote them out, exhort them with Scripture, and politely ask them to push for it. We can also sign the petition to put the amendment to a vote. Then, if we get enough signatures, we can vote for it. And it's not just that we can. We must. This is one of our responsibilities as Christians. It's our job as the Church to set the standard of morality, and since we stood by and let Roe v. Wade happen, I'd say we have a lot of catching up to do. We are to be the voice of those who have no voice. We are to stand up for the oppressed, for those who can't help themselves. To fail to do so is as serious as to join the oppressors. If we don't try to get this amendment passed, then the blood of every child killed between now and the next chance to end the practice should be on our heads. There is no way to exaggerate the seriousness and urgency of this. This is our shot at saving countless lives that may one day grow up to change the world for the glory of God.
Now, just like with Initiative 26, there are plenty of people (read "bloodthirsty liberals") who will be attacking this amendment with everything from the most convincing to the most ridiculous of arguments. I will present some of them here, along with their counters.
Objection: What about victims of rape and incest? Will we force them to carry children who serve as reminders of the trauma they've experienced?
Answer: Those poor women indeed warrant our sympathy and help, but that should not take the form of punishing the child. The babies didn't choose to be conceived under horrible circumstances. Even so, less than 2% of all abortions come from these cases, so it's not as much of an issue as it is made out to be. As well, some rights must supersede others. The right to life is always first, coming even before property and liberty. The woman's right to be free of a traumatizing reminder of her pain, as serious as it may be, does not override the right of an innocent child to live.
Objection: Why is it any of the government's business what a woman does with her body?
Answer: A compelling biological case can be made that the unborn child within a pregnant woman is not simply "part of her body." It is a unique organism, a new life. Regardless, again, some rights trump others. All humans have a right to live, and that right comes above any supposed right to choose. No one has the right to choose whether or not she wants to eliminate an irritating neighbor, so an innocent child should be even more protected.
Objection: If abortion were a crime, women with miscarriages would be investigated and maybe even prosecuted.
Answer: Says who? Unlike people who ask this question, most people have common sense. In the vast majority of circumstances, a miscarriage is obviously an uncontrollable misfortune, and law enforcement knows that. The only way a woman would be investigated would be if some suspicious activity or evidence appeared that warranted investigation. Most of the time, the woman would likely be left to grieve.
Objection: If you count the unborn as persons, wouldn't that mess up census data, carpool lanes, tax deductions, theme park admission, etc.?
Answer: I hesitate to even dignify this question with an answer, but I must, for the implications actually do start to worry people. The fact is that, in most cases, nothing would change. Unborn children would not be relevant to census and tax information, and even if they were, the forms could simply be updated. Other things such as carpool lanes are stupid questions that exist for no other reason than to mock the amendment.
Objection: Why punish the doctors who perform the abortions but not the mothers who seek them?
Answer: This is actually a valid point, and it is not solely one liberals concoct. A mother who seeks an abortion is every bit as guilty as a doctor who performs one. However, the issue is really not big enough to warrant delaying the passage of the amendment. The sooner the bloodshed stops, the better, no matter who winds up getting punished. If there were enough illegal abortions going on after the amendment was passed to warrant a change (which is unlikely), the amendment could always be updated with another amendment.
I hope this has provided you with all of the information you need for now. Even more so, though, I hope that you will now be compelled by the power of the Gospel in your heart to contact your legislators, sign the petition, vote, and force the issue of this amendment into passage. This is a huge opportunity, and if we don't do this now, we may never get another chance. It's time to restore dignity of life to the millions created in the image of God who never get to walk the earth. It's time to stand up for the oppressed, for the brutally murdered, for the unrepresented. It's time to save the children.
For more information, see http://personhoodfl.com/resource-kits/downloads/prolife-personhood-petition/