Dr. Freda Bush is among the OB-GYN physicians who publicly championed the Personhood Amendment. “The misconceptions and distortions that the opponents of this measure have continued to spew in spite of the evidence to the contrary have been very misleading,” she said Tuesday, “and the people have been deceived.”

Opponents of Initiative 26 said they were encouraged by Mississippi voters’ defeat Tuesday of the controversial Personhood Amendment.

But proponents were not discouraged.

“We are disappointed, but not discouraged. We are going to continue the fight for those who can’t fight for themselves,” said the Rev. Jimmy Porter, executive director of the Christian Action Commission of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which endorsed the amendment.

The contentious Personhood Amendment failed in Mississippi by a wide margin, unofficial and incomplete returns showed Tuesday night.

With about 90 percent of the vote counted, the initiative was headed for certain defeat.
The proposed amendment, which affirms that all fertilized eggs are people, was one of three initiatives that enlivened polling places across the state.

The others were Initiative 27, which would require Mississippians to show a government-issued ID in order to vote; and Initiative 31, which would ban the government from using eminent domain to take land for private economic projects. Both passed by wide margins.

Atlee Breland, 34, of Brandon, who fought against the Initiative 26, said she was encouraged by the outcome.

“Oh, my gosh, as a mother who struggled and fought to have a family through in vitro fertilization, the idea that this could be taken away from women like me was terrifying,” she said.

“To know that voters stood up for the right of women to have a family this way and to use the forms of birth control we want … it’s just amazing.”

Breland, who has been active in the Parents Against Mississippi 26 group, said she has three children because of in vitro fertilization and believes the initiative could have forced IVF specialists to leave the state.

Supporters of the proposal said the amendment would not have eliminated IVF.