‘No’ Vote in Mississippi Hinged on Issues Beyond Abortion
When her children woke up on Wednesday morning, Atlee Breland told them, “Mama won her election.”
From her Lego-strewn living room, she had campaigned furiously to defeat an anti-abortion amendment to the state Constitution that would have declared fertilized eggs to be “persons.” She created a Web site and Facebook page that reached tens of thousands of voters.
Mrs. Breland, who proudly identifies herself as a Christian, native Mississippian and mother of three, might seem just the kind of voter who would back such an amendment. But she had needed fertility treatments to conceive her twin daughters, who are now 5, and she saw the amendment as likely to restrict in vitro fertilization and threaten the ability of women like her to have children.
The amendment was rejected by 58 percent of voters in staunchly anti-abortion Mississippi, largely on fears like Mrs. Breland’s that hinged on subtleties of medical science
Good NYT article on the background of the Mississippi vote and the forthcoming ones in other states.