File under “too absurd to be true”

On Tuesday Mississipians will vote on whether to amend their state constitution to define the term “person” to include zygotes — the single cell that is formed when an egg is fertilized.

Initiative 26 is particularly scary, as the Ms. blog points out, because it opens the doors to criminalize women who’ve had miscarriages. That’s right, not only abortions — but miscarriages, too.

If it passes, I’m sure the consequences will be borne most heavily by the women who already lack access to basic reproductive services–like women on Medicaid who lack abortion access because of the Hyde Amendment,  or women in prison.

On another note, I would like to know what the drafters of this initiative think the consequences could be for political representation and governance. Would they like to count frozen embryos in the census? Will they let us count them as dependent children in food stamp applications or to claim tax credits?

Maybe before they get to those questions, they should ask themselves why Mississippi’s child poverty rate is 33 percent — the highest of all 50 states.