Proposed Colorado Amendment Would End Abortion
An amendment to the Colorado state constitution has been proposed and challenges the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision. The personhood amendment has been proposed by the group Colorado for Equal Rights, and would recognize a fertilized egg as a human child and outlaw abortion.
According to 7News Denver, conservative lawmakers in Colorado have recently signed petitions in support of the Colorado Human Life Amendment to Colorado's state Constitution. Colorado for Equal Rights has been collecting signatures on a petition to get the issue put on the November ballot. They need to collect 76,000 signatures by May 13 and have already collected approximately 40,000.
The proposed amendment reportedly defines the start of human life as the moment a woman's egg is fertilized. The language of the amendment does not specifically mention abortion, but pro-choice activists clearly see where this is headed. Many people believe that if the amendment is passed, it will lead to other legislation to make abortion illegal in Colorado. There is also concern that the amendment could be used to build a test case that could then be presented to the United States Supreme Court.
Mark Meuser, a spokesman for Colorado for Equal Rights, has said that the group intends to take this issue all the way to the United States Supreme Court in order to argue that an unborn baby is a human life. Meuser says that there is a weakness in the Roe vs. Wade decision that has not yet been exploited by pro-life activists, but that is about to change.
Meuser argues that in the Roe vs. Wade decision, Justice Harry Blackmun, the author of Roe wrote, "If this suggestion of personhood [for the unborn] is established, the [abortion rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment." Colorado for Equal Rights will use this text of the Roe vs. Wade decision to push the issue of personhood.
Legislative decisions in Colorado have historically supported a woman's right to have an abortion and contraceptive choices. By gathering signatures and having the issue put on the ballot, Colorado for Equal Rights will effectively bypass the legislature and put the issue forward for a public vote.
Pro-choice abortion rights groups are on the sidelines watching the group collect signatures. If enough signatures are gathered and the amendment makes it to the November ballot, it will mean a heated legal battle between pro-life and pro-choice groups.
Laws proposing that human life be recognized at conception have been proposed in Georgia, Mississippi and Michigan but all have failed. In Montana, pro-life activists have proposed a similar amendment.
Despite the failure of previous laws similar to the personhood amendment, Colorado for Equal Rights believes that they have a chance of success if the issue gets put on the November ballot this year. They reportedly concede that much depends on their ability to gain the support of evangelical Christians and Catholics in Colorado.
Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has endorsed the Colorado Human Life Amendment, so it would seem that the proposed amendment is off to a good start. However, Colorado's Catholic bishops have denied that they have personally expressed support for the proposed amendment.
