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ULTERIOR MOTIVES: Why Wisconsin embryo tax breaks are a slippery slope

ULTERIOR MOTIVES: Why Wisconsin embryo tax breaks are a slippery slope

ULTERIOR MOTIVES: Why Wisconsin embryo tax breaks are a slippery slope

Wisconsin wants its new “tax break” to create an explosive issue that reaches the United States Supreme Court.

Wisconsin’s legislature is likely to grant Wisconsin couples or single women a tax break if the woman is carrying an unborn embryo (a heartbeat) or fetus.

The prevailing theory is that the Wisconsin legislature simply wants to make its deeply unpopular 1847 prohibition against abortion more palatable to Wisconsinites.

The tax break may have a slight impact, very slight.

But the real reason Wisconsin wants to provide a tax break for embryos as “dependents” is to have the law challenged. Only a “person” can be a dependent under Wisconsin and federal law.

And there it is.

Extreme Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature want to gift wrap a case to provide the SCOTUS an opportunity to give embryos “personhood.”

And every “person” in the United States has civil rights.

Of course, most people have not thought the process through to the natural endpoint.

But Rolling Stone reports that the real purpose is farther ahead than Wisconsinites know.

“LRB-2486 would allow parents to claim an exemption on their tax returns for ‘unborn children for whom a fetal heartbeat has been detected.’ Co-sponsor Rep. Donna Rozar made the proposal’s intent crystal clear: The bill, she said, ‘recognizes an unborn child as a distinct human being prior to birth by allowing the child to be claimed as a dependent.’ The point isn’t to support Wisconsin families — the point is to change the definition of when life begins as part of an effort to enshrine in Wisconsin law the dangerous and dehumanizing concept of ‘fetal personhood.’” 

But the Constitution clearly only recognizes “born” human beings as people and thus the only ones with civil rights.

Enter the SCOTUS.

Rolling Stone adds that Wisconsin isn’t the only state shooting for this end goal. Georgia, too, wants the same result:

The representative pushing Georgia’s LIFE Act, which also creates a tax break, admitted in a leaked video that the tax break was nothing more than the underpinnings needed to recognize fetal personhood:

“We’re going to take this to the highest court in the land.”

Wisconsin is perhaps the best vehicle to get the bill to the SCOTUS because its ancient abortion law is vague and was opposed by a 2-1 margin when the question was put to a vote during Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election in April.

The liberal running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in that very election won by a significant margin, which may also be indicative of the degree to which the ban is opposed.

One would naturally infer that Wisconsin women would overwhelmingly oppose its state’s attempt to grant embryos with a heartbeat “personhood” and civil rights.

More importantly, if the SCOTUS granted embryos with heartbeats “civil rights,” it would nullify abortion in every state by pill or any means.

If the woman and the embryo both have civil rights, it would make it harder to argue that an abortion to save the life of the mother is constitutional.

It is unlikely that the SCOTUS would declare the embryo to be 100% equal such that there can be no exceptions for saving the life of the mother.

We have already seen a woman in Texas go into septic shock and nearly die because doctors were afraid to abort a fetus that had a 0% chance to live until the mother’s life was clearly on the line.

Imagine the horrors that might ensue if the SCOTUS went along with civil rights for embryos.

We don’t have to imagine the horrors brought about by this SCOTUS.

They are all too apparent.

I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on Twitter @JasonMiciak.

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.

Jason Miciak
Jason Miciak is an associate editor and opinion writer for Occupy Democrats. He's a Canadian-American who grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He is a trained attorney, but for the last five years, he's devoted his time to writing political news and analysis. He enjoys life on the Gulf Coast as a single dad to a 15-year-old daughter. Hobbies include flower pots, cooking, and doing what his daughter tells him they're doing. Sign up to get all of my posts by email right here:

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