Post by V on Sept 1, 2010 9:23:17 GMT -5
DENVER - A ballot measure that would ban abortions in every circumstance goes before Colorado voters this fall. And on Tuesday, opponents and supporters of the so-called 'Personhood Amendment' squared off at the State Capitol.
"Amendment 62 is dangerous," Vicki Cowart of Planned Parenthood told a large crowd gathered on the west steps of the Capitol. "It eliminates a woman's right to make personal, private decisions about her body and her health."
"This deeply personal and painful moral decision is best left to a woman," said Rev. Dawn Riley Duval of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, "And her doctor and God!" she shouted to loud applause.
"We consider this to be the civil rights issue of our century really," said Amendment 62 backer Gualberto Garcia Jones, who is director of Personhood Colorado."
Amendment 62 would grant fertilized human eggs a full spectrum of legal rights. Its authors claim opponents are using "scare tactics" from what they call " abortion profiteers."
"We're talking about a fundamental issue here, and that's the humanity of the child," said Jones. "There are many, many difficult circumstances before birth and after birth, and none of those change the fundamental fact that a human being is a person and we should treat everyone the same."
Colorado voters shot down a similar proposal in 2008 by a three to one margin. But Colorado senate and gubernatorial candidates Ken Buck, Dan Maes and Tom Tancredo have all expressed support for the latest measure.
"This is a distraction that would cost Coloradans time and money when we should be focusing on creating jobs and re-vitalizing our economy," said Fofi Mendez of the No on 62 Coalition.
Some 50 Colorado organizations have signed resolutions to fight the proposed amendment. Two years ago, the two sides spent about $2 million in a similar fight.
This latest measure would also ban emergency contraception like the so-called "morning after" pill, as well as abortion in the case of rape or incest.
"Amendment 62 is dangerous," Vicki Cowart of Planned Parenthood told a large crowd gathered on the west steps of the Capitol. "It eliminates a woman's right to make personal, private decisions about her body and her health."
"This deeply personal and painful moral decision is best left to a woman," said Rev. Dawn Riley Duval of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, "And her doctor and God!" she shouted to loud applause.
"We consider this to be the civil rights issue of our century really," said Amendment 62 backer Gualberto Garcia Jones, who is director of Personhood Colorado."
Amendment 62 would grant fertilized human eggs a full spectrum of legal rights. Its authors claim opponents are using "scare tactics" from what they call " abortion profiteers."
"We're talking about a fundamental issue here, and that's the humanity of the child," said Jones. "There are many, many difficult circumstances before birth and after birth, and none of those change the fundamental fact that a human being is a person and we should treat everyone the same."
Colorado voters shot down a similar proposal in 2008 by a three to one margin. But Colorado senate and gubernatorial candidates Ken Buck, Dan Maes and Tom Tancredo have all expressed support for the latest measure.
"This is a distraction that would cost Coloradans time and money when we should be focusing on creating jobs and re-vitalizing our economy," said Fofi Mendez of the No on 62 Coalition.
Some 50 Colorado organizations have signed resolutions to fight the proposed amendment. Two years ago, the two sides spent about $2 million in a similar fight.
This latest measure would also ban emergency contraception like the so-called "morning after" pill, as well as abortion in the case of rape or incest.
www.kwgn.com/news/kdvr-personhood-rally-txt,0,4178426.story
This is ridiculous! Is this even legal? I hope that this ballot also gets shot down in the voting booths, but damn...how is this even LEGAL? How can they ban something statewide that is a federally protected right? Which is the right to choose. Why is this even being entertained? Why has someone in current power not put a stop to this?
If this DOES get passed, I hope that someone successfully takes this all the way to the Supreme Court and has it overturned.
Then again, perhaps that is the entire point. Perhaps they WANT someone to do that, perhaps they think that the Supreme Court is conservative enough at the moment to ALLOW such a bill and thereby set a whole new precedent on abortion laws in the US on the state level. I hope that that is not possible, that they're overestimating. But, lately there have been new SCOTUS rulings that nobody had ever thought possible -- such as the corporate personhood ruling that allows corporations to send rivers of money to political candidates for elections.
Nobody has ever tried to legalize forced abortion in the US, but you wouldn't know it by the way the anti-choicers talk! This is a ridiculous measure. I hope that the voters in Colorado have enough sense to vote this down by a landslide.
I almost wish I lived in Colorado right now, so that I could add my vote to the "no fucking damned way" votes on Amendment 62.
I actually hope to move to Colorado one day, anyway, but that isn't for quite a long time. If at all. Still, the idea that this is going on in a state that I am hoping to make my own one day is just as disheartening as it was to find out about that ridiculous abortion law that was passed in MO recently. Which I do NOT remember voting on or hearing about until AFTER.
The fact that we're still having to fight so hard to keep our reproductive health and freedom is completely asinine. This sort of thing REALLY gets my dander up.