Why No Agreement on Recklessly Terminating a Pregnancy?

by: Jason Salzman

Tue May 07, 2013 at 08:34:10 AM MST

"Personhood" activists, who've twice lost ballot initiatives in Colorado to define life as beginning at conception, opposed this proposed law, as did GOP legislators, like Sen. Scott Renfroe, who was quoted in the Denver Post as saying the bill should be called "Let's Go on Killing Babies..." and that abortion amounts to the "Holocaust of our day."

Why didn't Personhood USA support the bill, which currently awaits Hick's signature?

"The response is very simple and direct," Personhood USA's Gualberto Garcia Jones told me via email. "Personhood could not support Planned Parenthood's bill because, under it, Brady Surovik at 8 lbs, 2 ounces would not be considered a person."

Brady Surovik was the name chosen for her baby by Heather Surovik, who was hit by a car when eight-months pregnant, resulting in the end of her pregnancy.

It's true, the proposed legislationspecifically does not "confer the status of 'person' on any human embryo, fetus, or unborn child at any state of development prior to live birth."

Still, why not support it anyway? Why wouldn't Garcia Jones back the legislation, giving prosecutors a stronger hand to pursue crimes against pregnant women, even if her fetus would not be considered a victim? Why not fight for legal recognition of zygotes (fertilized eggs) and other early forms of human development in other forums?

Personhood Activist Inspired to Confront "Timid" Christians

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Aug 02, 2012 at 12:13:08 PM MST

Timid isn't what you think of when you listen to McBurney's Weekly World internet podcast or hear his stories, which deserve a wider audience, about collecting signatures to put the personhood amendment, outlawing all abortions and some common forms of birth control, on the November election ballot in Colorado.

To get signatures, McBurney says he's been "stopping by" churches, sometimes by invitation and sometimes "commando-style," over the objections of church leaders. Once, he says, he was "literally grabbed" by a Catholic priest.

McBurney says he'd gladly get arrested repeatedly at churches, but family and work commitments make this impossible.

Recently, some members of a church, whose name McBurney will not divulge, told McBurney to ask their pastor to allow McBurney's personhood-signature gatherers to visit their church and collect signatures. This is McBurney's story of how he succeeded in getting signatures there.

I could not confirm whether McBurney's story is true, and in normal circumstances I wouldn't re-tell it without confirming it. However, whether it's true or not, or partially true, it's what McBurney is alleging, and it's being passed around in personhood circles, as inspiration for their cause. So, as such, and because the harm done if it's false is minimal, I think it's worth telling. Read it after the jump if you want.

House Passes "First Degree Homicide of the Unborn Child Bill"

by: peacemonger

Mon Mar 19, 2012 at 11:06:11 AM MST

This morning, on a party line vote, Colorado House Republicans passed a bill imposing "person hood".

The party-line vote was 33-32.

HB12-1130, sponsored by Rep. Janak Joshi (Republican), would create a new class of crime victim - "an unborn member of the species homo sapiens."

Statutes already exist in Colorado imposing additional penalties on perpetrators who knew, or should have known, that their victims were pregnant women. But the Joshi bill would allow murder charges to be filed against someone who causes a miscarriage.

Colorado voters have twice overwhelmingly rejected proposed constitutional amendments that would confer "personhood" rights on fetuses, and many organizations have expressed concerns about the potential effects of the bill.

Even the Colorado Catholic Conference declined to support it.

BREAKING: "First Degree Homicide of the Unborn Child bill" Passes Second Reading At CO State House

by: peacemonger

Sat Mar 17, 2012 at 01:11:00 AM MST

From State Rep Daniel Kagan(D) regarding HB 12-1130:

"...we were unable to prevent the Republican majority in the House from passing on second reading the First Degree Homicide of the Unborn Child bill. Under some circumstances, it makes both termination of pregnancy and the use of the morning after pill a homicide. It also confers personhood on a newly fertilized egg."

Squarestate readers may believe this bill will be stopped in the Senate. Tea Party legislators have been successful in passing 135 bills nationwide to limit women's reproductive rights this year. To assume it cannot happen in Colorado is a dangerous assumption.

Please call your State Representatives and demand justice for Colorado women. Tell them to vote "No" on this bill, which is a partial step toward completely outlawing abortion in Colorado. http://www.leg.state.co.us/cli...

Also, save the Date: March Against the War on Women, April 28th, 2012, at the Denver Capitol.

2012: The War On Women's Bodies, and How To Respond Legislatively

by: peacemonger

Thu Feb 09, 2012 at 09:35:18 AM MST

In Oklahoma, our not-so-distant neighbor, Senate Bill 1433 states a fetus "at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state." If Senate Bill 1433 becomes a law, all forms of abortion and various forms of contraception could potentially be considered murder, and therefore illegal.

Democratic State Senator Constance Johnson, attempting to make a point, attached
an amendment to the Oklahoma bill that would ban the spilling of semen in any location other than a woman's vagina. Unfortunately, Senator Johnson then withdrew her amendment, which would have made masturbation illegal.

Politics should be focus of personhood coverage

by: Jason Salzman

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 13:53:14 PM MST

So journalists covering the announcement today by personhood backers that they are petitioning  to put the measure on the ballot shouldn't get bogged down in the old questions of which forms of the Pill this amendment would ban. It's well-known to Coloradans that common forms of birth control would be banned.

The focus for reporters should be the politics of having a personhood measure on the ballot in 2012, in a swing state like Colorado.

So I attended today's news conference announcing the personhood petition drive to make sure these issues were raised by reporters, and since they were not, I filled in the journalistic gap.

I asked Kristi Brown, who's changed her name from Kristi Burton since she sponsored the first personhood amendment with her father in 2008, if she expected to get the same support from major candidates that her measure had gotten previously.

Romney once supported Personhood, then flipped, and then possibly flipped again

by: Jason Salzman

Fri Nov 18, 2011 at 06:27:14 AM MST

But no media outlet that I could find reported that four years ago Romney said he supported the federal equivalent of the Mississippi personhood measure.

The federal version would expand the definition of a "person" under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to include the unborn.

On August 6, 2007, Romney was asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" about the following plank of the Republican platform, which, incidentally, remains in the national GOP platform to this day:

"We support a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make it clear that the 14th Amendment's protections apply to unborn children."

"You know, I do support the Republican platform, and I support that being part of the Republican platform, and I'm pro-life," Romney told ABC.

On radio, CO Right to Life leader vows 2012 effort to pass CO Personhood, despite Miss loss

by: Jason Salzman

Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 10:30:22 AM MST

Hanks sounded mildly disappointed with Mississippi's rejection Tues. of a Personhood measure by a 58-to-42-percent margin, but she told Swanson that the Personhood movement is "moving in the right direction," gaining 27% in CO in 2008, 30% 2010, and 42% in Mississippi this week.

Hanks invited Swanson's listeners to a "March for Life" Jan. 21 at noon on the west steps of the CO Capitol, where the third attempt to pass a Personhood Amendment in Colorado will be officially launched and petitions for gathering signatures to put the measure on the ballot will be available. Mike Adams of conservative Townhall.com and others will speak, Hanks to Swanson, at the "Round Three Personhood Colorado" event.

She told Swanson that Personhood activists in Florida are gathering signitures now, as are supporters in Ohio and Montana. Coloradoans were the first in the country to vote on a Personhood amendment in 2008.

Colorado Personhood Activist (and Radio Host) Doesn't Trust Romney's New Support for Personhood

by: Jason Salzman

Tue Nov 08, 2011 at 12:41:18 PM MST

Enyart has also been a tireless supporter of Colorado's "personhood amendments," which would have codified Enyart's belief that life begins at conception.

So, now that Romney is on the record saying he "absolutely" believes, like Enyart, that life begins at conception (and Romney would sign a Constitutional Amendment to make it law) has Enyart's view of Romney changed?

"Romney needs the Republican base and so he is happy to lie to them for their votes," Enyart emailed me. "But of course, slavery ended here and elsewhere in the world even though many who eventually supported emancipation in reality hated the slaves themselves. Similarly with child killing, the goal is to make open support of abortion unthinkable, regardless of the hardness of one's heart."

Fighting Words 2: Corporate Personhood & Limited Liability

by: Bill Simpson

Fri Oct 28, 2011 at 11:16:04 AM MST

    Once there was a London shoemaker named Aron Salomon. He had a large family and a prosperous business. He had built-up his business over the course of 30 years having started with very little. His biggest customer was the British Army which bought boots, lots of boots. Aron Salomon wanted to retire, and his children who worked in the shoe factory wanted to be more than mere employees. So in the fall of 1892 Aron Salomon decided to incorporate.

That's when things started to go wrong.

Eggmendment 2010 Gets Enough Signatures

by: Fong

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 13:44:32 PM MST

I just received word that Personhood Colorado, the proponents of the "eggmendment" measure to give due process and property rights to fertilized eggs has acquired 46,671 signatures to get back on the ballot. After petitions were thrown out by the Secretary of State for having unacceptable notarizations, the organization was allowed a few more weeks to collect 15,000 more signatures to cure the discrepancies resulting from the tossed petitions.

The previous measure, Amendment 48, was defeated in 2008 76-24% and was touted by opponents as "simply goes too far."