A personhood amendment by any other name ... would still ban abortion
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Version 0 of 1. Pro-life advocates would like voters to believe that referendums that just happen to define life as beginning at conception are not, in fact, so-called “personhood” amendments. You know, the kind that will result in a complete ban on abortions, a ban on many forms of contraception, some interference in end-of-life care and the potential end of in vitro fertilization altogether. So it’s not a surprise that pro-life zealots are, three weeks ahead of Election Day in the US, duplicitously trying to rebrand their “totally-not-personhood” amendments, rather than, you know, be upfront about the true effects that those laws might have on the people voting for them. Personhood has failed at the polls every single time – including two losses already in Colorado, the birthplace of Personhood USA. Besides which, keeping voters in the dark seems to be effective. In North Dakota, polls show that Measure 1, which would amend the state constitution to read as broad and pro-life as humanly possible – “The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected” – is poised to pass come November. Fully 50% of voters were in favor of the amendment, and a massive 17% of respondents said they were undecided. But the large number of undecided voters isn’t surprising: the amendment language – which passed the state legislature well over a year and a half ago – is vague and its supporters are uninterested in either calling it a personhood amendment or elucidating what it will do to voters (especially since, if passed, it could shut down the state’s only in vitro fertilization treatment center). Supporters of Measure 1 have adamantly stated that amendment isn’t a personhood bill at all: ND Chooses Life, the coalition of anti-abortion and traditional family values organizations supporting the measure, insists – straight-faced – that the amendment’s language “does not define ‘person’, it does not define when life begins, and it does not grant the legal rights of a ‘person’ to anyone”. In August, the group’s communications director even told me that they “[had] not pulled away from using ‘personhood’ language because it never used it”. But those talking points didn’t make it all the way to Personhood USA, the anti-abortion group out of Colorado leading the national personhood push. On Saturday, Personhood USA announced that former Republican governor turned Fox News-ified endorsement machine Mike Huckabee endorsed Measure 1 and wanted their members to donate to ensure its passage: If Measure 1 passes North Dakota would be the first state to clearly define life as beginning at conception. In turn, this would support all other abortion-regulating laws throughout the state. Defining life at conception is the gist of the measure as it would prohibit any new legislation from coming through North Dakota amending abortion measures or infringing on the right to life. Whoops. In Personhood USA’s home state of Colorado, they’re also pushing Amendment 67 – their third try to get personhood past the state’s recalcitrant voters. This time, anti-abortion activists allege that “Brady’s Bill” is a simple fetal homicide constitutional fix: by defining a person as existing legally from the moment of conception, the state can supposedly better penalize those who commit crimes against a fetus. What advocates don’t admit publicly is that, by changing the language in the criminal code, any harm caused to a fetus, embryo or even zygote is a an offense that could mean time in jail. And though overt measures to impose personhood in Colorado have already failed twice, this backdoor effort may actually succeed where the others failed. While a September Suffolk poll had Colorado’s “Brady’s Bill” failing 45 to 35, opponents have said that their own internal polls shows the amendment in danger of passing if the vote were held today. Meanwhile, Colorado’s extreme anti-abortion Senate candidate Cory Gardner, who still backs a federal personhood bill, picked up the pathetic but momentous endorsement of the Denver Post, as if personhood needed any more of a tacit endorsement in this, the season when Anything But Personhood got personhood to pass. Should that finally happen, as Naral president Ilyse Hogue said in September, “Twelve losses will be erased by a single win” – but the real losers will be the women of North Dakota or Colorado. |