Mississippi voters are likely to be the first in the nation to add to their state constitution “personhood” language that declares unborn children to be persons, effectively outlawing abortion and setting up a potential Supreme Court showdown — if they get a chance to vote on it in November.
On June 6, the Mississippi Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a pre-emptive court challenge against Measure 26, a ballot question that would define a person as a “human being from the moment of fertilization.”
Personhood bills are seen as a direct attack on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion a right under the U.S. Constitution. Roe implied that if unborn babies were legal “persons,” they would have a right to life under the 14th Amendment, pro-life groups say.
The Alabama Legislature is considering two personhood bills this month, and at least seven other state legislatures introduced similar bills this year, said Keith Mason, a Christian minister who launched Personhood USA in 2008 with fellow evangelist Cal Zastrow.
Meanwhile, a new book by a Georgia pro-life leader argues that personhood goes beyond abortion and is “the human rights issue of the 21st century.”
“Sanctity of life” handles emerging issues like “destructive stem-cell research,” human cloning and creation of human-animal chimeras, said Daniel Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life and author of “Personhood: A Pragmatic Guide to Prolife Victory in the 21st Century and the Return to First Principles in Politics.”
Just as English abolitionist William Wilberforce realized that the 1800s slave trade couldn’t be “regulated into submission” and he had to take bolder, decisive actions to end it, modern pro-life forces must recognize that they are in a similar historical moment, wrote Mr. Becker.
Georgia’s support of personhood accelerated pro-life victories and led it to become the first state in the nation to endorse personhood in a nonbinding vote. “Delaying a personhood strategy is simply not an option,” said Mr. Becker. “The future waits for no man.”
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