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http://www.kdvr.com/news/politics/kdvr-personhood-backers-hope-third-tim…

DENVER — The Colorado group behind the twice-failed “Personhood Amendment” announced Monday that they’ll be trying again with a revised initiative on the 2012 ballot.

Earlier this month, voters in conservative Mississippi rejected a Personhood amendment almost identical to the one that Colorado voted down in 2008 and 2010.

Undaunted, Denver-based Personhood USA is introducing a new, revised amendment with tweaked language aimed at achieving the same result — a ban on abortion across the state.

“This is a movement, and even if we lose a campaign in Mississippi or wherever, we’re not going away,” said Gilberto Garcia Jones at a press conference on the west steps of the Capitol Monday. “We’re in it for the long haul.”

The revised amendment would add language to the Colorado Constitution guaranteeing the right to life “applies equally to all innocent persons” and that “the intentional killing of any innocent person is prohibited.”

Also under the new amendment, only birth control, in vitro fertilization and assisted reproduction “that kills a person” shall be affected by this amendment.

Spontaneous miscarriages and medical treatment during life-threatening situations would not be affected; however, there would be no exceptions for abortions after cases of rape or incest.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Monica McCafferty took issue with Personhood USA’s contention that they’ve twice failed mostly because voters didn’t know what they were voting on — and that the revised language will make a difference.

“That’s insulting to say that Colorado voters didn’t know exactly what this is about. They did” McCafferty said. “This is extreme. This is another anti-woman, anti-family, anti-abortion measure. We’ve seen it before.”

Personhood’s reemergence during a major presidential election year could also be a boon for Democrats as they look to adopt Sen. Michael Bennet’s successful 2010 strategy — targeting moderate, suburban women voters — in an effort to help Obama win this most crucial swing state.

On Monday, Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio wasted little time issuing a press release highlighting the stance of the likeliest GOP presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who expressed support for the measure when it was on the ballot this year in Mississippi.

“Mitt Romney and his fellow Republican Presidential candidates should know by now that pandering to the extremists in their Tea Party base doesn’t appeal to the average Coloradan,” Palacio said.

“And after the latest version of Romney said he ‘absolutely’ supports the radical efforts of Personhood USA and other extreme groups, he will have a lot to explain to Colorado voters. Then again, we should probably expect yet another Romney flip-flop.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/lawmaker-file…

By Anita Kumar

Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William), one of the most outspoken legislators on abortion issues, filed a so-called personhood bill for the upcoming legislative session, which will begin in January.

The bill provides that “unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the commonwealth, subject only to the laws and constitutions of Virginia and the United States, precedents of the United States Supreme Court, and provisions to the contrary in the statutes of the commonwealth.”

The introduction comes less two weeks after voters in Mississippi rejected a similar ballot measure.

Many Virginia Republicans have said they are eager to revive socially conservative legislation that stalled or died in a Democratic-controlled Senate, now that both chambers are controlled by the GOP.

The bill was immediately criticized by Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, who said the legislation would outlaw abortion and could ban common forms of birth control.

“We have no doubt that this is just the beginning of an all-out series of legislative attacks on women’s freedom and privacy,’’ Keene said. “This agenda is out of touch with our commonwealth’s values and priorities-and we will fight it every step of the way.”

By Anita Kumar | 07:26 PM ET, 11/21/2011

by EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS - Associated Press | AP – 3 mins 53 secs ago

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Abortion opponents say they’re still pursuing life-at-fertilization ballot initiatives in six other states even though voters in the Bible Belt state of Mississippi rejected the conservative measure.

Abortion rights supporters praised the vote, saying the measure went too far because it would have made common forms of birth control illegal and would have forced women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

The White House called it a victory for women and families.

“The president believes that extreme amendments like this would do real damage to a woman’s constitutional right to make her own health care decisions, including some very personal decisions on contraception and family planning,” President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

If it had passed, the “personhood” proposal was intended to prompt a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a legal right to abortion. A Colorado-based group, Personhood USA, is trying to get the measure on 2012 ballots in Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada and California.

Voters in Colorado have already rejected similar proposals in 2008 and 2010. Keith Mason, a co-founder of the group, said they might try again in Mississippi, too.

“It’s not because the people are not pro-life,” Mason said of the failed ballot measure. “It’s because Planned Parenthood put a lot of misconceptions and lies in front of folks and created a lot of confusion.”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a statement that Mississippi voters rejected the amendment because they understood it was government going too far.

The measure “would have allowed government to have control over personal decisions that should be left up to a woman, her family, her doctor and her faith, including keeping a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy from getting the care she needs, and criminalizing everything from abortion to common forms of birth control such as the pill and the IUD (the intrauterine device).”

The so-called personhood initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of Mississippi voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted.

The measure divided the medical and religious communities and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support.

Opponents said the measure would have made birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. More specifically, the ballot measure called for abortion to be prohibited “from the moment of fertilization” — wording that opponents suggested would have deterred physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn’t survive.

Opponents also said supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest.

Amy Brunson voted against the measure, in part because she has been raped. She also has friends and family that had children through in vitro fertilization and she was worried this would end that process.

“The lines are so unclear on what may or may not happen. I think there are circumstances beyond everybody’s control that can’t be regulated through an amendment,” said Brunson, a 36-year-old dog trainer and theater production assistant from Jackson.

Buddy Hairston, 39, took his 8-year-old triplets to a precinct outside Jackson to hold signs supporting the initiative.

“Unborn children are being killed on a daily basis in our state and country, and it’s urgent that we protect them,” said Hairston, a forestry consultant.

Mississippi already has tough abortion regulations and only one clinic where the procedures are performed, making it a fitting venue for a national movement to get abortion bans into state constitutions.

The state’s largest Christian denomination, the Mississippi Baptist Convention, backed the proposal through its lobbying arm, the Christian Action Commission.

“We mourn with heaven tonight over the loss of Initiative 26, which would have provided the hope of life for thousands of God’s unborn babies in Mississippi,” said the commission’s director, the Rev. Jimmy Porter. “Instead the unborn in Mississippi will continue to be led down on a path of destruction to horrible deaths both inside their mothers and in laboratories.”

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi and the Mississippi bishop of the United Methodist Church opposed the initiative.

Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, a church traditionally against abortion, issued a statement neither supporting nor opposing the initiative. The Mississippi State Medical Association took a similar step, while other medical groups opposed it.

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. November 9, 2011 (AP)

Mississippi voters were asked Tuesday whether life begins at conception, a state constitutional amendment with a chance of becoming the first victory for the so-called personhood movement that aims to make abortion illegal.

If approved, the initiative will almost certainly bring legal challenges because it is at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision that gave women the right to an abortion. The measure divided the medical and religious communities in this Bible Belt state and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support.

Opponents said the measure could make birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. It could also deter physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn’t survive.

Supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest, opponents said.

Amy Brunson voted against the measure, in part because she has been raped. She also has friends and family that had children through in vitro fertilization and she was worried this would end that process.

“The lines are so unclear on what may or may not happen. I think there are circumstances beyond everybody’s control that can’t be regulated through an amendment,” said Brunson, a 36-year-old dog trainer and theater production assistant from Jackson.

Hubert Hoover, a cabinet maker and construction worker, voted for the amendment.

“I figure you can’t be half for something, so if you’re against abortion you should be for this. You’ve either got to be wholly for something or wholly against it,” said Hoover, 71, who lives in a Jackson suburb.

Mississippi already has tough abortion regulations and only one clinic where the procedures are performed, making it a fitting venue for a national movement to get abortion bans into state constitutions.

Keith Mason, co-founder of the group Personhood USA, which pushed the Mississippi ballot measure, has said a win would send shockwaves around the country. The Colorado-based group is trying to put similar initiatives on 2012 ballots in Florida, Montana, Ohio and Oregon. Voters in Colorado rejected similar proposals in 2008 and 2010.

Barbour, long considered a 2012 presidential candidate before he ruled out a run this year, said a week ago that he was undecided. A day later, he voted absentee for the amendment, but said he struggled with his support.

“Some very strongly pro-life people have raised questions about the ambiguity and about the actual consequences — whether there are unforeseen, unintended consequences. And I’ll have to say that I have heard those concerns and they give me some pause,” Barbour said last week.

Barbour was prevented from seeking re-election because of term limits. The Democrat and Republican candidates vying to replace him both supported the abortion measure.

Specifically, the state constitutional amendment defines a person “to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.”

The state’s largest Christian denomination, the Mississippi Baptist Convention, backed the proposal through its lobbying arm.

The bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi and the General Conference of the United Methodist Church opposed it.

Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, a church traditionally against abortion, issued a statement neither supporting nor opposing the initiative. The Mississippi State Medical Association took a similar step while other medical groups opposed it.

Mississippi already requires parental or judicial consent for any minor to get an abortion, mandatory in-person counseling and a 24-hour wait before any woman can terminate a pregnancy.