Church and N.D. Personhood

North Dakota State Capitol
North Dakota State Capitol (photo: wiki art)

The North Dakota personhood bill is set to receive a hearing today at Bismarck’s Capitol building. The state’s Catholic conference says it will support the bill if it is amended.

The Dickinson Press reports that the state’s bishops, through the Catholic Conference, planned to bring a “hoghouse amendment,” to the Monday hearing. “That’s legislative parlance for replacing all of a bill’s language after its opening phrase, ‘A bill…’”

Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot, told the paper he considers his House Bill 1572 to be fine the way it is.

But, says the article: “The bishops and many other people wonder how such a law could affect existing statutes on legislative apportionment, taxes, government programs and anything else that involves enumerating individual citizens or residents. Could a pregnant woman who answers the door to a Census taker count herself as two persons? Could parents claim a tax deduction for a baby not yet born? How about programs like food stamps and other government aid doled out according to family size?”

Ruby is adamant that he wants no changes in his bill, and sees no problem with its current form. “For counting purposes, we would define that at birth,” he said.

The paper quotes Christopher Dodson, general counsel for the Catholic Conference, saying Ruby is relying on the opinions of Robert A. Destro, law professor at the Catholic University of America at the Columbia School of Law in Washington, D.C.

“At the time he made the comments, Professor Destro did not have the benefit of seeing the proposed amendments or receiving information as to why they were proposed,” Dodson is quoted writing to legislators. “Upon receiving that information, Professor Destro concluded that the amendments proposed by the North Dakota Catholic Conference are ‘far superior to the language which appears in the current bill’ and that they remedy ‘a number of significant ambiguities’ in the bill’s current form.”