At an MSNBC presidential town hall event, Ted Cruz today uncharacteristically clammed up about his extreme anti-choice views and policy positions — specifically, his support for so-called personhood legislation.
Cruz tried to hide his extreme record, but the truth of his hardline anti-choice views are well-documented: Cruz has a history of supporting personhood measures that would ban abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, and could even ban common forms of birth control.
Background:
Cruz Supported Personhood Laws
Cruz Supported Personhood Amendments
August 2015: Cruz Signed Georgia Right To Life PAC’s Personhood Affirmation.According to Georgia Right to Life PAC, “Today, Texas US Senator Ted Cruz received a ringing endorsement from Georgia’s largest pro-life organization. ‘Senator Cruz has an unblemished record of standing up for innocent life,’ said Ricardo Davis, Director of Georgia Right to Life’s Political Action Committee (GRTL PAC). ‘Recent revelations about the horrors of the abortion cartel cry out for a principled fighter like Senator Cruz.’ Senator Cruz received the endorsement after reviewing his activities supporting personhood and receiving his signed GRTL PAC Personhood Affirmation, which asks that candidates support a personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such an amendment would guarantee a constitutional right to life for every innocent human being, from earliest biological beginning until natural death.” [Press release- Georgia Right to Life PAC, 8/8/15]
- Cruz Pledged To Support Personhood Legislation.According to Georgia Right to Life PAC, “Today, Texas US Senator Ted Cruz received a ringing endorsement from Georgia’s largest pro-life organization. ‘Senator Cruz has an unblemished record of standing up for innocent life,’ said Ricardo Davis, Director of Georgia Right to Life’s Political Action Committee (GRTL PAC). ‘Recent revelations about the horrors of the abortion cartel cry out for a principled fighter like Senator Cruz.’ Senator Cruz received the endorsement after reviewing his activities supporting personhood and receiving his signed GRTL PAC Personhood Affirmation, which asks that candidates support a personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such an amendment would guarantee a constitutional right to life for every innocent human being, from earliest biological beginning until natural death.” [Press release- Georgia Right to Life PAC, 8/8/15]
Life At Conception Act
2012: Cruz Pledged To Co-Sponsor The Life At Conception Act. According to a press release from the National Pro-Life Alliance, “But shortly before the primary, one of his opponents, Ted Cruz began a surge, denying Dewhurst the easy victory he had been planning on, turning the race into a runoff. In making that surge, Mr. Cruz took a bold stance on several issues, but most importantly to National Pro-Life Alliance members he pledged if elected to cosponsor the Life at Conception Act.” [National Pro-Life Alliance, 9/4/12]
Cruz Supported The Life At Conception Act. According to Pro Life Alliance, “With the general election now past, come January several newly elected pro-life champions will be joining the fight on Capitol Hill for a Life at Conception Act. One of those champions will be Ted Cruz from Texas whose strong support for the Life at Conception Act contributed to his success.” [Pro Life Alliance, 11/9/12]
- Legislation Declared The Unborn To Be “Persons.” According to the Pro Life Alliance, “A Life at Conception Act – as introduced in the 113th Congress by Congressman Jim Jordan (H.R. 1091) and in the Senate by Senator Rand Paul (S. 583) – is legislation that, quite simply, would declare the unborn to be ‘persons’ under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and therefore entitled to the right to life guaranteed therein.” [Pro Life Alliance, Accessed 8/15/14]
Personhood Could Ban Some Types Of Birth Control
Legislation That Defines A Fertilized Egg As A Human Being Would Ban All Abortions, Including Those Resulting From Rape And Incest, And Would Declare Common Forms Of Birth Control, Like The IUD, As Murder. According to New York Times, “A constitutional amendment facing voters in Mississippi on Nov. 8, and similar initiatives brewing in half a dozen other states including Florida and Ohio, would declare a fertilized human egg to be a legal person, effectively branding abortion and some forms of birth control as murder. […]The amendment in Mississippi would ban virtually all abortions, including those resulting from rape or incest. It would bar some birth control methods, including IUDs and ‘morning-after pills,’ which prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus. It would also outlaw the destruction of embryos created in laboratories.” [New York Times, 10/26/11]
American Congress Of Obstetricians And Gynecologists: So Called “Personhood” Legislation Would Abolish Regular Forms Of Birth Control Like The IUD And The Common, Everyday Birth Control Pill. According to a statement from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “Although the individual wording in these proposed measures varies from state to state, they all attempt to give full legal rights to a fertilized egg by defining ‘personhood’ from the moment of fertilization, before conception (ie, pregnancy/ implantation) has occurred. This would have wide-reaching harmful implications for the practice of medicine and on women’s access to contraception, fertility treatments, pregnancy termination, and other essential medical procedures. These ‘personhood’ proposals, as acknowledged by proponents, would make condoms, natural family planning, and spermicides the only legally allowed forms of birth control. Thus, some of the most effective and reliable forms of contraception, such as oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and other forms of FDA-approved hormonal contraceptives could be banned in states that adopt ‘personhood’ measures. Women’s very lives would be jeopardized if physicians were prohibited from terminating life-threatening ectopic and molar pregnancies. Women who experience pregnancy loss or other negative pregnancy outcomes could be prosecuted in some cases.” [ACOG, 2/10/12]
Personhood Amendments, Which Aimed To Define A Fertilized Embryo As A Person, Would Make Forms Of Birth Control, Like The Common, Everyday Birth Control Pill, Illegal Because They Prevent Implantation Of A Fertilized Egg. According to Salon, “But [Mississippi’s] Initiative 26, which would change the definition of ‘person’ in the Mississippi state Constitution to ‘include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof,’ is more than just an absolute ban on abortion and a barely veiled shot at Roe v. Wade — although it is both. By its own logic, the initiative would almost certainly ban common forms of birth control like the IUD and the morning-after pill, call into question the legality of the common birth-control pill, and even open the door to investigating women who have suffered miscarriages. … [T]he Personhood movement hopes to do nothing less than reclassify everyday, routine birth control as abortion. The medical definition of pregnancy is when a fertilized egg successfully implants in the uterine wall. If this initiative passes, and fertilized eggs on their own have full legal rights, anything that could potentially block that implantation – something a woman’s body does naturally all the time – could be considered murder. Scientists say hormonal birth-control pills and the morning-after pill work primarily by preventing fertilization in the first place, but the outside possibility, never documented, that an egg could be fertilized anyway and blocked is enough for some pro-lifers.” [Salon, 10/26/11]
Published: Apr 14, 2016