Baby Found in a Porta-Potty in Colorado. Is it Murder?

From the Rocky Mountain News:
A fetus was found in a port-a-potty at a sand and gravel lot Wednesday in Weld County about eight miles south of the Wyoming border.

The fetus was a male, and the Weld County coroner is expected to conduct an autopsy on Friday, the sheriff's office said. Investigators think the fetus was in the early part of the third trimester.

They have not been able to figure out how long the fetus was there, deputies said.

An employee who cleans the toilets found the fetus about 3:30 p.m. in one of two port-a-potties at a sand and gravel business at county roads 126 and 21 near the farming town of Carr, the sheriff's office said.

The employee told deputies that the port-a-potty was last cleaned two weeks ago, the sheriff's office said.

In what was seen as a victory for abortion rights advocates, Amendment 48 was seen as a "dangerous" amendment. Why? It would have defined "personhood" as being at fertilization.
Here is a quote from the side against this amendment:

The amendment is backed by Kristi Burton and Colorado for Equal Rights Burton told 7 News “It doesn’t outlaw abortion, it doesn’t regulate birth control. It’s just a constitutional principle. We’re laying a foundation that every life deserves protection. We’ll see what happens after that.” Wait a minute, no one tries to get an amendment on the ballot just to see what happens if it passes. If a fertilized egg is a person, and killing a person is illegal, then aborting a pregnancy would also be illegal. There is just no way around that. The Colorado for Equal Rights website boasts about supporters within the medical community. Mostly, these doctors have strong ties to pro-life organizations. Is it any surprise to any one that Louis Breschi, M.D. President-Elect of the Catholic Medical Association supports this amendment? The opposition to 48 seems to have the medical community on their side. The Executive Board of the Colorado Gynecological-Obstetrical Society has voted unanimously to oppose Amendment 48.

If this amendment passes, it would be a disaster for the women of Colorado. Defining a fertilized egg as a person would wreck havoc on a woman’s right to make her own decisions.

Even scarier, here is another statement about this amendment and probably another reason why it was defeated:

* Amendment 48 would make abortion first-degree murder, except perhaps to save the woman’s life. First-degree murder is defined in Colorado law as deliberately causing the death of a “person,” a crime punished by life in prison or the death penalty. So women and their doctors would be punished with the severest possible penalty under law for terminating a pregnancy — even in cases of rape, incest, and fetal deformity.

* Amendment 48 would ban any form of birth control that might sometimes prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus — including the birth control pill, morning-after pill, and IUD. The result would be many more unintended pregnancies and unwanted children in Colorado.

* Amendment 48 would ban in vitro fertilization because the process usually creates more fertilized eggs than can be safely implanted in the womb. So every year, hundreds of Colorado couples would be denied the joy of a child of their own.

Our paper also develops a strong defense of abortion rights — not based on vague appeals to “choice” or “privacy” — but on the fact that neither an embryo nor fetus qualifies as a person with a right to life.

An embryo or fetus is wholly dependent on the woman for its basic life-functions. It goes where she goes, eats what she eats, and breathes what she breathes. It lives as an extension of her body, contained within and dependent on her for its survival. It is only a potential person, not an actual person.

That situation changes radically at birth. The newborn baby exists as a distinct organism, separate from his mother. Although still very needy, he lives his own life. He is a person, and his life must be protected as a matter of right.

So, we argue, when a woman chooses to terminate a pregnancy she does not violate the rights of any person. Instead, she is properly exercising her own rights over her own body in pursuit of her own happiness. Moreover, in most cases, she is acting morally and responsibly by doing so.

Again, the URL for the paper is:

http://www.seculargovernment.us/docs/a48.pdf

The sad fact is that Amendment 48 is based on sectarian religious dogma, not objective science or philosophy. It is a blatant attempt to impose theocracy in America. That’s definitely a scary thought.

Thanks again for speaking up about it — and my apologies for writing such a huge comment.

Diana Hsieh
Founder, Coalition for Secular Government
http://www.seculargovernment.us

This is further call for Christians to WAKE UP. The Bible says in such beautiful poetry by King David: "For you created me in my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body."

How can anyone argue with that CLEAR picture of our beginnings?
These are SICK AND PERVERTED people, who need God's mercy and yet will also be judged for this. I pray that we stand up to this sort of thinking as THIS is what will destroy this country.
The election of Barack Obama was not the worse thing to happen. There are much BIGGER issues at stake. I refer you to Randy Alcorn's blog on my right side and he covers the abortion issue to a much higher degree.
This just really bothered me and I should have spoke up sooner. God forgive me.