Rival abortion groups watch Mississippi vote closely - Reuters

Reuters) -

By Verna Gates

JACKSON, Miss (Reuters) - Anti-abortion and women’s rights groups were watching Mississippi closely on Tuesday to see if voters there approved a constitutional amendment that could effectively make that state’s abortion laws the strictest in the country.

If the so-called “personhood amendment” passes, Mississippi would be the first U.S. state to define a fertilized egg as a person, a controversial concept aimed at outlawing abortion, some types of birth control and infertility methods that result in the loss of embryos.

Polls closed in Mississippi at 7 p.m. local time but it was too early for significant results.

Passage of the amendment would open a new front in the political and legal battles over abortion in the United States, and could embolden abortion opponents’ efforts to get similar measures passed in other states.

Supporters of the ballot initiative hope it is the first step toward overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The measure seeks to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest victims.

“To be human is enough to have rights, and those rights should be in the law,” said Personhood USA founder Keith Mason, who rallied voters in Mississippi on Tuesday to approve the amendment.

Critics of the measure said it could criminalize routine medical care and endanger women’s lives.

“It is the most radical measure in a year in which there have been a slew of radical anti-choice laws,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York.

Election officials said a slate of ballot initiatives in Mississippi helped drive a robust voter turnout, and the passion on both sides of the personhood issue was evident at the polls.

For some voters, the decision hinged solely on their beliefs about abortion, while others grappled with the broader effects of the amendment. There is dispute over the extent to which birth control and in-vitro fertilization options would be limited.

“I work in healthcare and have had my own personal challenges with reproductive issues. Those issues should be between a husband and wife,” said Felicia Denson, 35, after voting against the measure at a church in a Jackson, Mississippi, suburb.

“I am pro life and against abortion, but this law was just too vague.”

Farrah Newman, an ophthalmologist who is seven months pregnant with her third child, said she voted in favor of the amendment.

“I am a mother and a female and a physician and a Christian,” she said. “I have researched this and found nothing strong enough to negate my conviction that someone is a person at conception.”

(Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Greg McCune)
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