Mississippi’s ‘Personhood Amendment’ fails at polls
Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would’ve declared life begins at fertilization, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide.
The so-called “personhood” initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted. If it had passed, it was virtually assured of drawing legal challenges because it conflicts with the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a legal right to abortion. Supporters of the initiative wanted to provoke a lawsuit to challenge the landmark ruling.
The measure divided the medical and religious communities and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support.
CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reported earlier that the vote could set a precedent for the nation. The major concern for many regarding the strict law and new anti-abortion tactic was its possible affect on fertility treatments, especially for people like Atlee and Greg Breland.
“When I was 28-years-old, Greg and I were diagnosed with infertility,” Atlee said. They used in vitro fertilization to conceive their 5-year-old twin girls. Atlee had worried the proposed state constitutional amendment could limit fertility treatments for other Mississippi couples.
“I don’t want Mississippians to have to go Washington, D.C. or New York or California to have infertility treatment,” she said.
Opponents said the measure would have made birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. More specifically, the ballot measure called for abortion to be prohibited “from the moment of fertilization” — wording that opponents suggested would have deterred physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn’t survive.
Supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest, opponents said.