Mike Huckabee was the designated pro-forced birth advocate in last night's debate, and he tackled the issue with aplomb, but also with utter disregard for established science.
When asked about de-funding Planned Parenthood, he brushed that off as a nothingburger. And then he flew right into his lofty answer.
Mike Huckabee demonstrates no regard for the personhood of the woman carrying that fetus. If it threatens her life to be pregnant, so what? If the fetus has deformities, so what? This is raw power speaking here. Or the raw desire for power, anyway.
WALLACE: Governor Huckabee, like Governor Walker, you have staked out strong positions on social issues. You favor a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. You favor a constitutional amendment banning abortions, except for the life of the mother. Millions of people in this country agree with you, but according to the polls, and again this an electability question, according to the polls, more people don’t, so how do you persuade enough Independents and Democrats to get elected in 2016?
HUCKABEE: Chris, I disagree with the idea that the real issue is a constitutional amendment. That’s a long and difficult process. I’ve actually taken the position that’s bolder than that.
A lot of people are talking about defunding planned parenthood, as if that’s a huge game changer. I think it’s time to do something even more bold. I think the next president ought to invoke the Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the constitution now that we clearly know that that baby inside the mother’s womb is a person at the moment of conception.
Except we know nothing of the kind. Nothing at all like that. And to prove this, Huckabee yanked out the term "DNA schedule" along with the predictably dull graphic imagery to inflame the passions of his True Believers.
The reason we know that it is is because of the DNA schedule that we now have clear scientific evidence on. And, this notion that we just continue to ignore the personhood of the individual is a violation of that unborn child’s Fifth and 14th Amendment rights for due process and equal protection under the law.
It’s time that we recognize the Supreme Court is not the supreme being, and we change the policy to be pro-life and protect children instead of rip up their body parts and sell them like they’re parts to a Buick.
Fusion guffawed:
It’s true that there is a schedule of events that happens when a sperm cell penetrates an egg, and that schedule is guided by genes. And yes, the way those two cells end up giving rise to the many types of tissues in your body follows a biological schedule. But there is NOT some magical DNA schedule that allows scientists to pinpoint the exact time personhood begins.
Just in case Twitter and I missed the ‘DNA schedule’ discovery, I decided to ask someone with some genetics chops. His reaction was perfect.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” said Duke University geneticist Misha Angrist, in an email. “but ‘DNA schedule’ has real potential as a name for a band, an app or maybe an erectile dysfunction drug.”
This is, of course, the crux of the Roe v. Wade argument, and nothing has changed in the 40 years since it was decided. Well, nothing but a more radical and deeply ignorant Republican party.
