LET’S HEAR IT FOR SPERM!  I want to be clear... The erstwhile candidate for the presidency of the United States of America, Christine O’Donnell, whether you think she is a witch or not, had nothing to do with the subject of my BLOG writing today.  Let’s see how Rush Limbaugh handles (no pun intended) the breaking news today coming out of Wilmington, Delaware.  When most people are struggling with socio-economic dilemmas of one kind or another, the folks in Wilmington are now asked to be fair to sperm.  According to the Wilmington City Council, sperm (Should that be Sperm with a capital “S”?) are people, too.  The council for Delaware’s largest city passed a resolution by an 8 to 4 vote Thursday calling on the Delaware legislature, other state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to pass laws granting ‘personhood” rights to human eggs and human sperm.  

The resolution goes like this:  (Careful how you read this resolution...) “[E]ach” ‘egg person’ and each ‘sperm person’ should be deemed equal in the eyes of the government and be subject to the same laws and regulations as any other dependent minor and be protected against abuse (as in the old-fashioned churchy sense of self-abuse?), neglect (no problem there!!!) or abandonment (what?) by the parent (Unless the Delaware people have discovered something new about reproductive biology, shouldn’t we say “abandonment by the father”?) or guardian (Now that opens up a whole other can of worms... Whoooops). The Wilmington City Council goes on to recommend that "Laws should be enacted by all legislative bodies in the United States to promote equal representation, and should potentially include laws in defense of 'personhood,' forbidding every man from destroying his semen. Any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman's vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child," reads the amendment. 

The Wilmington City Council in a “take that, Smarty Pants,” mood,  took its action on the same day that the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment  that would have given employers the right to refuse any health care service to employees for moral reasons. 

“Personhood” bills are cropping up in several states.  Remember the Oklahoma state senator, Constance Johnson, who introduced and later withdrew an amendment giving zygotes the same rights as adults.  In Virginia, as legislators struggled with whether or not to mandate (A little emphasis on the first syllable of the word “mandate,” please...) ultrasounds before abortions, state Senator Janet Howell (I sincerely hope her suggestion was [again, pardon the expression]) tongue-in-cheek, requiring men to get a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test prior to being treated for erectile dysfunction.  Georgia state Rep. Yasmin Neal has introduced a bill vastly limiting vasectomies for men as a protest against an abortion bill in her state.  By the way, the ultrasound bill has passed the state Senate in Virginia, and the governor is expected to sign it. 


As Pogo said, "We have seen the enemy, and it is us."