....I am totally disappointed in Paul Ryan right now.

According to this, he has decided to cosponsor a bill (along with 17 others) that bestows full legal rights at the moment of fertilization. It's the personhood bill that had people freaking out during the election, and while it was downplayed at that time, he's apparently full steam ahead with it now.

The bill was originally introduced in 2011 by Rep Paul Broun from GA, and it says that a one-celled human embryo should have all of the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.  Even before it implants in the uterus.  And that's what I have a problem with.

So long, IUDs!  So long, in vitro fertilization!  Even Tagg Romney and his wife, who welcomed twin boys this past May thanks to IVF, would probably balk at this bill. 

Look - I totally respect and appreciate that Broun and Ryan both believe that life begins at conception. I really do. But practically speaking, and from the standpoint of where I think the legal line should be drawn, I've always been one of those people who believes life begins with the beating of a heart (which happens at around 5 weeks gestation).  That's why I'm a HUGE proponent of the morning after pill, the week after pill, ANY form of birth control, and as an absolutely last resort, even abortions up to the 5th week of pregnancy.  But once the heart starts beating?  Nope.  That's the termination of a LIFE.

Your mileage may vary.  And I'm sure, for a lot of you, it does. 

But let's be realistic about this.  The chances for Roe v Wade being overturned are slim to none.  We all know this.  And that's why I'm in favor of legislation which makes it less convenient than it currently is to get an abortion.  I'm in favor of legislation which requires women have an ultrasound to see EXACTLY WHAT THEY'RE ABOUT TO DO before they have an abortion.  And most of all, I'm in favor of emergency contraception like the morning after or Plan B pill, because they basically eliminate the whole, "but what about cases of rape and incest?" argument.  There is absolutely no reason in the world that a victim of rape/incest should need to wait to terminate a pregnancy well into the first trimester EVER.  And there's no reason anyone else should either. 

The problem is that abortion has become so easy, so convenient, and so absolutely the hallmark of liberal feminists, that it has become a legitimate form of birth control.  And that's positively sickening. If a chick has unprotected sex, and thinks there is even a sliver of a chance she could be pregnant, she oughta be at the pharmacy getting the morning after pill. 

But I digress.  The point of this post, even though I know it'll rub some folks the wrong way, is that this is the LAST THING IN THE WORLD that Paul Ryan needs to be worrying about right now.  There are bigger issues for Congress to tackle than giving constitutional rights and personhood to a blastocyst.  What's next? Is he going to demand that women who use IUD's as a form of birth control are jailed for murder?

Ugh.