Abortion foes to try 'personhood' measures again

[doggie]

The wording on this is getting crazy. I wish they would freeze to death in their own state.

DENVER (AP) - An anti-abortion group that sponsored an unsuccessful constitutional amendment in Mississippi said Monday it will try again with a revised version next year in Colorado, Montana and Oregon.

Denver-based Personhood USA has campaigned for state constitutional amendments defining life as beginning at fertilization. While the amendments sought to ban abortion, many physicians said they could make some birth control illegal and deter in vitro fertilization.

Those personhood amendments failed twice in Colorado, and Mississippi voters rejected an amendment this year.

On Monday, Personhood USA proposed adding a new section that states "the intentional killing of any innocent person is prohibited" and that the right to life "applies equally to all innocent persons."

Only birth control, in vitro fertilization and assisted reproduction "that kills a person" would be affected by the amendment.

The term "person" would apply to "every human being regardless of the method of creation." A human being is "a member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development," it states.

While spontaneous miscarriages and medical treatment for life-threatening physical conditions would not be affected, no exception would be made for abortions in cases of rape or incest.

The proposed measure seeks to better explain to voters what would and would not be affected, said Jennifer Mason, spokeswoman for Personhood USA.

"We've seen the opposition use scare tactics to convince people to vote 'No,'" Mason said. "We cannot ban in vitro fertilization. So we explain this would affect only those practices that kill human embryos."

Personhood USA said it would submit its proposed language to the Colorado secretary of state's office for approval before collecting signatures to place it on the ballot.

Mason said Personhood USA planned to submit amendments in Montana and Oregon "at the request of citizens in both states." She did not elaborate other than to say the Denver group was supporting local activists.

Any successful measure would likely trigger legal challenges because it would conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established a legal right to abortion.

In Mississippi, which has some of the nation's toughest abortion regulations, voters rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment 58 percent to 42 percent on Nov. 8. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour said he thought proponents erred by putting the amendment on the ballot instead of going through the Legislature.

"If it had gone to the Legislature, the wrinkles in it would have been worked out," Barbour said after the vote.

"Instead, these were some people from Colorado who had an initiative they tried twice to pass in Colorado and they couldn't," Barbour said. "And they thought, 'What's the most pro-life state in the country?' Well it's Mississippi. So they came to Mississippi with a half-baked initiative."

In 2008 and 2010, Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected anti-abortion proposals that would have granted constitutional rights at the moment of conception under the state constitution. Opponents warned the amendments would ban fertility treatments and emergency contraception if they harmed fertilized eggs. Backers argued 21st century DNA experiments make it imperative to give fetuses human rights.

Abortion rights advocates raised nearly 10 times the cash that abortion foes did to defeat the 2010 effort. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains issued a statement Monday saying it will fight any new measure in Colorado.

[alba]

Newsflash: a zygote doesn't deserve more rights than a woman. End of story.

[JumpingtheSnark]

you have to wonder...if this didn't pass in Mississippi of all places, why would Colorado be the next logical proving ground? I know there is a lot of fundie there, but also a LOT of hippie dippy ( :mrgreen: ) and lots of regular folks.

[Effie]

Ugh you are kidding me... I feel sick now.

[Austin]

Hmmm. Doesn't seem like they've dialed it back much. Still no exception for rape/incest and still includes IVF and contraceptive deemed to be "abortifacient", which in the minds of the deluded, includes oral contraceptives. Evangelical women take oral contraceptives and undergo IVF procedures. Not gonna pass.

[mystweaver]

It already failed once in Colorado. Seriously, people?

It's also coming to my state. We make the lists for the most unchurched part of the US, and haven't gone for a Republican candidate for any major office in the last 30 years. Where is Seth Meyers? I need a "Really?"

[GenerationCedarchip]

And look what just got prefiled for the 2012 term in the Virginia legislature:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB1

[dawn9476]

It already failed once in Colorado. Seriously, people?

It's also coming to my state. We make the lists for the most unchurched part of the US, and haven't gone for a Republican candidate for any major office in the last 30 years. Where is Seth Meyers? I need a "Really?"

It failed twice in Colorado.

[Shina]

It already failed once in Colorado. Seriously, people?

It's also coming to my state. We make the lists for the most unchurched part of the US, and haven't gone for a Republican candidate for any major office in the last 30 years. Where is Seth Meyers? I need a "Really?"

It's going to die in Oregon and I'm going to laugh.

[Lainey]

They're just going to keep doing this over and over until they get the results they want, aren't they? Scary.

[Swamptribe]

Sigh, well, guess it doesn't really cover anybody, because "Homo sapiens" isn't the correct term for modern man but is a catch all term for various species in the genius Homo.

They will also do it over and over again, refining out what they feel keeps people from voting it in. Eventually, there will be nothing left in the bill to give it any legal teeth.

[Brainsample]

If all physicians agreed that all oral contraceptives were abortifacient, then the "personhoood" folks might have an argument. If all pro life physicians agreed that all OCs were abortifacient (or were not indicated in certain cases as a treatment for a medical condition and constituted the best therapy for the woman who is ill), they might have an argument.

But they have neither.

It's America, and they have the right to advance this kind of agenda. But it's so flawed.

I am seriously pro-life, but contraception and abortion of an established pregnancy are two entirely different things. It's wrong for them to force the very much non-unanimous assumption that they are one and the same on all Americans at the risk of prosecution of doctors and patients is just wrong.

[DinnerPlateDahlia]

you have to wonder...if this didn't pass in Mississippi of all places, why would Colorado be the next logical proving ground? I know there is a lot of fundie there, but also a LOT of hippie dippy ( :mrgreen: ) and lots of regular folks.

You're exactly right; Colorado is a totally nonsensical "next proving ground". It actually says a lot about the sheer delusion of the fundies that they would try it here... again... sigh...

Pretty much exactly this ballot initiative by the same group has already failed twice--by the largest margin of any measure on the ballot both times. Not only that, but we are now considered a pretty solid swing state that went for Obama in 2008. Yes, Dobson's stronghold in the Springs and some of the upper-middle class, neo-conservative, mega-churchy enclaves dotted around Denver's suburbs give us a bad name. But Denver, Boulder, and all the counties with the major ski resorts (Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Summit) are highly progressive. There is no way this won't be even more soundly defeated this time around.

Oh, and, with all due respect Doggie, no one's likely to freeze to death here. 300+ days of sunshine, and 60-70 degree days in Denver throughout the Winter.

Not to sound all tourism brochure or anything! :oops: