A prolife priority in the MS Primary
by Rob ChambersOn August 2, 2011, the primary election for statewide offices across Mississippi will take place. Included in this election will be all 52 seats in the MS Senate and all 122 seats in the MS House of Representatives. MS Senators and Representatives both serve four year terms before their seats are open for re-election or change.
The senatorial and representative candidates that Mississippi voters will elect this year will also be proposing, introducing, presenting, and voting on legislative bills over the next four years. With each new legislative session, thousands of bills are submitted and from those, only a fraction will have the potential to become law.
Over the past several years prolife legislation has been introduced in both chambers of the MS Legislature. As a result of the efforts of past legislative sessions, MS has passed several prolife laws which have made our state among the most prolife states in the nation. In 2008, Mississippi was listed as the 7th most prolife state by national prolife group, Americans United for Life. This ranking of 7th in the nation was the result of the work of MS Legislative sessions prior to 2008. This ranking was inherited by the legislature elected in 2007 who began their four year term in 2008, and it is this same legislature who is now primarily responsible for the downgrade of Mississippi’s prolife rating from 7th to 10th in the nation.
This downward trend since 2008 is certainly not due to the lack of solid, prolife legislation being introduced and considered by the MS Legislature. While the MS Senate and MS Senate leadership have supported prolife legislation, leadership in the MS House has not.
The downward trend of Mississippi’s prolife ranking is due to a lack of prolife leadership by some of the committee chairmen in the MS House. These chairmen have been responsible for considering prolife legislation and have allowed prolife legislation to die in committee without ever having a chance to be voted for on the floor of the MS House. However, there has been enough votes on the floor of the MS House to pass prolife legislation if prolife legislation had been passed out of these committees.
Examples of recent prolife bills that have been introduced but died in the House are HB 656 and SB 2036. HB 656 proposed to make it a felony to transport a minor to another state for an abortion without parental consent. This bill died in a MS House committee. SB 2036 would have required physicians who perform abortions in clinics to be board certified in OB/GYN. It also died in a MS House committee.
Another bill that died in a MS House committee was a bill that has been introduced three years in a row. It is known as the Child Protection Act, SB 2498. If passed, it would have required mandatory reporting of sexual crimes against minors, and mandatory retainment of DNA of a fetus for the purpose of documenting the perpetrator of a sex crime against the minor, thus making it easier for prosecution. Again, this is the third year that committees in the MS House have failed to better protect the unborn by killing this bill.
As previously noted, these prolife bills have died in committee in the MS House, and such legislation would fair a much better chance of passing if MS House committee chairmen would allow prolife legislation to be introduced on the MS House floor for discussion and a vote.
When Mississippians elect a new MS House, these representatives will in turn elect and serve under a Speaker of the House of their own choosing for the next four years. The Speaker of the House will in turn appoint chairmen of committees who will be considering prolife legislation.
If the leadership of these committees remains anti-life – that is opposition to protecting the most vulnerable and defenseless among us in our state, the unborn, and opposition to the fact that human life begins at conception or fertilization – then Mississippi will likely continue to move down in ranks as a prolife state.
The Christian Action Commission will be making available on our website position statements on prolife issues by statewide candidates, including the MS House and Senate. To see where your candidate stands on this issue or to see if they have completed their questionnaire, go to http://www.ChristianAction.com/blog/comments/election2011 OR go to http://www.ChristianAction.com and select 2011 MS Election Resources under ‘Legislation and Politics’. (As questionnaires are submitted, this website will be updated accordingly.)
The Christian’s concern for citizenship is not merely a matter of understanding, but also of acting. The final test of our citizenship is not what we think and say, but what we do. Knowledge about our concerns related to moral, social, and ethical issues should then lead us to action. Vote your values, beliefs, and convictions.