Next November, Florida residents could be voting on a ballot that, if passed, would change the state's constitution to define a fertilized egg as a person with full legal rights. This so-called "personhood initiative" was recently defeated in Mississippi, one of the strongest pro-life states in the union.
Nevertheless, a Colorado-based anti-abortion group known as Personhood USA that led the failed Mississippi initiative has been trying to get the measure on 2012 ballots in several other states including Florida. These are California, Montana, Ohio, Nevada and Oregon. Similar voter initiatives in Colorado failed in 2008 and 2010.
To qualify for the Florida 2012 ballot supporters must collect at least 676,811 signatures (8 percent of the votes cast during the 2008 presidential election), then have them certified by local elections supervisors and submitted to the secretary of state by February 1.
In December, Personhood Florida changed the language of their original petition after obtaining only about 20,000 signatures. This version, drafted by pro-life attorneys, is based on language approved by the Family Research Council and the American Family Association. Signature collection on the new petition started fresh in January.
If the amendment doesn't make it on the ballot this year- and it is fairly unlikely that it will- PersonhoodFlorida has two years to use any signatures collected since the first of 2012. Supporters of the measure include Robert C. Smith, former US Senator from Florida and Dennis Baxley, candidate for State House district 24 and former speaker pro tem of the Florida House of Representatives and Former Executive Director of Florida's Christian Coalition.
Opponents of the effort argue that it will essentially outlaw abortion and a range of other legal medical procedures, criminalizing both women and their treating physicians.
They say it could affect how doctors treat potentially life-threatening pregnancy conditions such as pre-eclampsia and ectopic pregnancies, medical procedures that could destroy fertilized eggs and in-vitro fertilization therapy in which unused eggs are often discarded. They also assert that it would affect women receiving the morning-after pill since it prevents implantation and possibly other forms of contraception.
Pro-lifers who favor the Personhood initiative claim the new Florida proposal does not ban birth control although it would ban abortion drugs such as RU-486.
For more information: compare the two Florida initiatives
Old language: Person Defined: (a)The words "person" and "natural person" apply to all human beings, irrespective of age, race, health, function, condition of physical and/or mental dependency and/or disability, or method of reproduction, from the beginning of biological development of that human being. (b)This amendment shall take effect on the first day of the next regular legislative session occuring after voter approval of this amendment.
New language: a) The rights of every person shall be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life. The right to life is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person.
(b) With respect to the fundamental and inalienable rights of all persons guaranteed in this Constitution, the word 'person' applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, race, sex, health, function, or condition of dependency, including unborn children at every stage of their biological development regardless of the method of creation.
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