Scary: The New York Times reported Wednesday on so-called “personhood amendments,” specifically a state constitutional amendment being voted on on Nov. 8 in Mississippi, which would would declare a fertilized human egg to be a legal person … “effectively branding abortion and some forms of birth control as murder.”

Scarier: A half-dozen other states have similar legislation up for debate.

The Mississippi amendment, the Times says, would bar all abortions and forms of contraception “including IUDs and [the] “morning-after pill” which prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus,” and would prevent the destruction of lab-created embryos.

The tactic has split anti-choice forces between those who support it and those who find it too extreme and potentially harmful to efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade. If it passes the certain legal challenges “could disrupt vital care, critics say, and force years of costly court battles.”

Many conservative Christian groups are (surprise!) firmly behind the extremist legislation. But not everyone is buying it.

“Dr. Randall S. Hines, a fertility specialist in Jackson working against Proposition 26 with the group Mississippians for Healthy Families, said that the amendment reflects “biological ignorance.” Most fertilized eggs, he said, do not implant in the uterus or develop further.”

Oh, Dr. Hines. Since when did ignorance stop anyone from involving themselves in politics?