Abortion foes to try again to pass personhood amendment in Colorado

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19380916?source=rss

A Denver-based anti-abortion group that sponsored an unsuccessful personhood amendment in Mississippi — declaring fertilization the starting point of life — is mobilizing again to push a fortified measure in Colorado, Oregon and Montana.

The group will hold a news conference today on the west steps of the state Capitol to unveil the renewed effort. Personhood amendments have failed twice in Colorado, but organizers think the third time will be different.

They’ll announce official sponsors and unveil exact language for submission to the secretary of state.

They would need about 79,000 valid petition signatures to win a spot on Colorado’s 2012 ballot.

Organizers said Saturday they are banking on broad grassroots support, with volunteers circulating petitions at grocery stores, and a new game plan.

The new version of the measure “will protect every child, no matter their size, level of development, gender, age or race,” said Jennifer Mason, spokeswoman for Personhood USA.

New language “will explain again that every human being is a person from their earliest moments,” Mason said. “And it will include some extra information that hopefully will prohibit lies of our opponents. . . . It will be a departure from what we’ve done before.”

Personhood USA pushed Colorado’s Amendment 62 in 2010 seeking constitutional rights for individuals “at the beginning of biological development.”

Colorado voters rejected it by a 3-to-1 margin — just as they rejected a nearly identical measure in 2008.

This year, Personhood USA turned to the Bible Belt, pushing a measure in Mississippi, but 55 percent of voters rejected it.

If voters were to pass a measure saying life begins at fertilization, legal challenges would be likely because such a measure would conflict with the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that established a legal right to abortion.

In Colorado, a “No on 62” campaign led by Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and abortion-rights groups prevailed after raising more than $570,000 — nearly 10 times the cash that abortion foes received.

Abortion-rights advocates in Colorado harnessed lawyers, medical experts and women who had suffered rape and miscarriage. They used public forums to cast the measure as misguided, arguing that, beyond ending abortion, declaring fertilization as the starting point for life would lead to a prohibition of emergency contraception in rape cases and limit treatment for miscarriages, tubal pregnancies and infertility.

Now, anti-abortion groups in Colorado, Oregon and Montana will try to sway voters again, Mason said.

Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or [email protected]