As is their right.
"Antiabortion movement hopes for key victory in Miss.; Vote is on whether to call a fertilized egg a person" November 06, 2011|By Sandhya Somashekhar, Washington Post
WASHINGTON - An insurgent antiabortion movement that is gaining momentum nationwide is hoping for its first electoral victory Tuesday, when Mississippi voters will decide whether to designate a fertilized egg as a person and potentially label its destruction an act of murder.
I didn't know antiabortionists were killing U.S. troops.
If approved, the nation’s first “personhood’’ amendment could criminalize abortion and limit in-vitro fertilization and some forms of birth control. It also would give a jolt of energy to a national movement that views mainstream antiabortion activists as timid and complacent.
“They’ve just taken an incremental approach,’’ said Les Riley, the founder of Personhood Mississippi and a tractor salesman and father of 10 who initiated the state’s effort. “We’re just going to the heart of the matter, which is: Is this a person or not? God says it is, and science has confirmed it.’’
“Life-at-conception’’ ballot initiatives in other parts of the country, including Colorado last year, have failed amid concerns about their far-reaching, and in some cases unforeseeable, implications.
But proponents of the amendment - who were inspired partly by the Tea Party movement - say they are more confident of victory in Mississippi, a Bible Belt state where antiabortion sentiment runs high and the laws governing the procedure are so strict that just one abortion clinic exists.
Opponents of the measure, including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, have eroded support for it by casting it more broadly as an infringement on women’s health and an example of government overreach. Like backers of the amendment, dubbed “MS 26,’’ they have turned out at college football games to distribute literature and spend weekday evenings working phone banks - although not Wednesdays, because so many people attend church that evening.
“A lot of people think this is just about abortion, but it’s not about abortion,’’ said Valencia Robinson, an abortion rights and HIV activist in Jackson, who spent Friday knocking on doors. “It’s bad for women’s health, it’s bad for our economy, and my strongest point is, it’s just government intrusion in our personal lives.’’
Still, the Nov. 8 measure has broad support that stretches across party lines, with both the Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates voicing support for it....
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"Women lead in Miss. abortion ban defeat" by Emily Wagster Pettus | Associated Press, November 10, 2011
JACKSON, Miss. - Defying Mississippi’s conservative reputation, women voters appeared to lead the charge against a ballot measure that sought to ban abortion and could have made some birth control illegal and deterred doctors from doing in vitro fertilization.
Supporters of the so-called personhood movement, which defines life as beginning at fertilization, vowed to push for the amendment in six other states next year, even though this Bible Belt state may have been its best chance at success.
While there were no exit polls to determine how men and women voted, women for weeks sounded off on social networking sites....
The measure divided the medical and religious communities in Mississippi....
That's what was intended and why the media picked it up.
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I consider myself antiabortion insofar as I think it is a matter for the states, dear readers. Thus I remain true to my political ideals and tolerate the practice in this state according to the wishes of my fellow citizens. No disrespect intended to women; however, I feel there are many more important issues at the present time.
