By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Oh what a stupid concept it has become for Americans to celebrate their birthdays. In reality, you are just recognizing that you survived one more trip around the sun. As for me, I love being showered with gifts for having made it another year. For those I love, I tell them birthdays are for me to celebrate their having come into my life.

It has always been understood that to an American, the date you were expunged from your mother’s womb was the most important date in your life. According to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, all your rights and privileges as an American immediately attached the moment of your birth.

But the culture and law of the United States is changing such that the date of your birth is a meaningless event. The date of your birth no longer is as significant a date as is the date of your conception. It seems to me that Americans should no longer recognize birthdays but instead should start celebrating ‘Conception Day’.

All across America, “rights” and legal protections are being extended by State Legislatures beyond the moment of birth. Governments are reaching all the way up the birth canal to attach protections at the moment of conception. For example: “In Arkansas, lawmakers are considering making it a crime for a pregnant woman to take a drag off a cigarette. In Utah, a woman serves 18 months' probation for child endangerment after refusing to undergo a Caesarean section to save her twins, one of whom died. In Wisconsin and South Dakota, authorities can haul pregnant women into custody for abusing alcohol or drugs. And July 1 in Alabama, Brody's Law took effect. It enables prosecutors to level two charges against anyone who attacks a pregnant woman and harms her fetus.” Here in Onondaga County, our own District Attorney has likewise brought charges against a woman whose baby was born with cocaine in its system.

In recognizing that a fetus has civil rights beyond those of its mother and an independent right to protection of the law is a serious threat to a woman’s privacy. By creating a cause of action whereby a fetus can turn on its own mother for injuries suffered by the fetus allegedly due to negligence of the mother, all pregnant women risk not only toxemia, getting fat, and other physical disabilities, but now have to live in infinite fear that their baby will sue them for any defect. That, and pregnant women will have to live in hiding and seclusion for fear that someone or some police officer may disagree with a lifestyle choice alleging it could harm the fetus. What will we do with children born with birth defects? How much civil and criminal liability will we attach to the Mother for actions she could have taken to prevent the injury?

More importantly, by extending legal and civil protections up into the womb, we strip a woman of her humanity and turn her into an incubator for some form of magical and special prize that is more important to the State than is the mother.

Too many politicians, especially those of the Christian persuasion, are now running on election year sensitive issues. In addition to standing on the backs of children to shroud themselves in the cloak of savior, Christian oriented Legislators are using the so-called fetal rights issues to turn back the clock on women’s rights. By commandeering the contents of wombs and uteruses, the State can bypass the abortion rights protections and inflict upon the Mother the pain of surrogacy for the benefit of the State and the Gods of the Christians.

Hence, I call upon all Americans to reconsider the tradition about Birthdays. Let Hallmark get busy generating a new holiday … Conception Day … and let us Rejoice; as we recall the freedoms of years long ago.