Los Angeles Times Examines Antiabortion-Rights Groups' Push For 'Personhood' Ballot Measures

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 29 Sep 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Abortion-rights opponents are escalating their efforts to place so-called "personhood" measures on several state ballots in 2010 as a way to end legalized abortion, the Los Angeles Times reports. Their goal is to put referendums before state voters on whether states' constitutions should be amended to declare that personhood and rights accorded to human beings begin at conception. According to the Times, personhood-amendment advocates believe that legally establishing personhood from conception would undo legalized abortion under the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, in which the court declared that a fetus is not legally a person.

Advocates of the personhood amendments are gathering signatures, raising funds and pressuring state legislatures to support the measures in California, Florida, Louisiana and other states. Keith Mason, co-founder of Personhood USA, said the group has "big and small efforts" under way in 30 states, adding, "Our goal is to activate the population." Mason said, "This is an uphill battle. Even though we may not have the votes or the political equity, we have to start somewhere."

Abortion-rights supporters say personhood amendments threaten some forms of contraception, including intrauterine devices and birth control pills, as well as in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem cell research. They also say voters will reject the measures as a government intrusion into their privacy. Ted Miller, a spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that personhood measures are "a backdoor abortion ban."

The Times reports that advocates on both sides of the debate think the logic behind the personhood movement is "farfetched," and personhood supporters so far have been unsuccessful at changing any laws. Colorado in 2008 became the first state to put a personhood amendment before voters, who rejected it 78% to 27% after the possibility of criminalizing birth control came up in the debate. State legislatures in Montana and North Dakota rejected similar measures earlier this year, but abortion-rights advocates took note of the close votes. North Dakota's House passed a bill calling for a constitutional amendment on personhood, but the Senate rejected it. The Montana Senate passed a similar bill, which died in a House committee, according to NARAL Pro-Choice Montana's Executive Director Allyson Hagen.

According to the Times, personhood advocates in California on Monday will announce a signature-gathering campaign for an initiative to amend the state's constitution to define a person as a human beginning at conception. The proposed California Human Rights Amendment states, "The term 'person' applies to all living human beings from the beginning of their biological development -- regardless of the means by which they were procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability." Supporters will need to obtain about 690,000 signatures to get the proposal on the 2010 ballot. The initiative's leaders are being advised by the American Life League, which is also assisting campaigns in Colorado, Florida, Missouri and Montana.

Opponents of the California amendment argue that its language goes beyond the discussion of whether a fetus is a person. Katherine Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said the measure is "so extreme it could literally outlaw IUDs and birth control pills." Although she called personhood measures "so extreme that people reject them," she said that "we take nothing for granted" and "will fight it with everything we've got" (Abcarian, Los Angeles Times, 9/28).

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