Mississippi

The state of Mississippi, one the the poorest, least educated states in the United States, may take it upon itself to define the beginning of citizenship as the moment of biological conception in an attempt to placate loud pro-life religious zealots who wish to control the sexuality of all. The American equivalent of the Taliban.

Underlying this position on what they consider human rights is an attempt to prevent women from having control over their reproductive and sexual lives. This is very evident when the proponents are revealed as supporters of Tea Party principles which would deny sex education, prenatal care assistance, preschool child care and overall medical care to the women they would control. Mississippi ranks 5th out of 50 states in unwanted teenage pregnancies in the U.S., according to a 2010 Guttmacher Institute report.

Why is our political process still polluted by this kind of stupidity? In part, the political exploitation of fanatic religion, especially in the South, has been successful at disrupting progressive political change in national politics. Those who are invested in a petroleum economy and corporate domination of the political process have discovered that religious zealotry is a good substitute for overt racism and rabid homophobia. Pro-life movements are just another form of pointing a finger at perceived evil-doers to distract from economic and political issues of injustice. It is a method of gathering the ignorant and bewildered around a cause. They can then be manipulated more subtly on other matters. This was the ploy of the Christian Coalition of the 1980s. Then LGBT people were in their sights as well as abortion clinics. 

This current initiative in Mississippi is simply a bugle blast to those religious fanatics who have no real reasoned ethical or moral compass of their own. It is time to marshal their raw anger for the 2012 Presidential election. After all, two of the main challengers in the Republican party are declared religious extremists. One is a fundamentalist Christian. The other is a Mormon.

Those who oppose progressive change are powerful, though few in number. They rely on manipulating the uneducated to maintain their power, to divide and conquer. They manipulate Alabama legislators to enact immigration law which works to undermine proper national immigration reform. Now they manipulate Mississippi legislators to enact an attack on a woman's right to control her own body. These are the same old emotionally charged issues which have been dragged out every four years for three decades with no real resolution or advancement. And that is the point: Those in power would confound positive change to suit their own purposes.