Pushing "Personhood"

The defeat in Mississippi hasn't deterred the PersonhoodUSA people. As I mentioned before, they have plans for every state and they're working to get on ballots across the country:

Personhood USA, the Colorado-based anti-abortion group that led the Mississippi initiative, is working to get the measure on 2012 ballots in California, Florida, Montana, Nevada, Ohio and Oregon, among other states. Similar voter initiatives in Colorado failed in 2008 and 2010.

However, the "personhood" issue isn't just coming that way. It's also being considered by legislators.

Alabama State Sen. Phil Williams, a Republican, is pushing legislation for a similar constitutional amendment. In June, Williams pre-filed a personhood bill to be considered during the 2012 session, according to the Senate's website. The bill seeks to define persons "to include all humans from moment of fertilization and implantation into the womb." Earlier versions of the Alabama bill failed to advance.

And:

ATLANTA — Two Georgia lawmakers are considering Legislation similar to the "personhood" referendum rejected by voters in Mississippi last week.

Sen. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, and Rep. Rick Crawford, D-Cedartown, have both supported similar Legislation previously declaring that life begins at fertilization and seeks to ban abortion. Loudermilk says he is looking at re-introducing the bill with modified language omitting references to fertilization and cloning — words that proved problematic in the failed Mississippi ballot issue.

There was "personhood" legislation intro'd into the US House in January, HR 374 "Life At Conception Act", but it is stalled in committee.

Now, the Personhood USA people are holding a press conference today to announce their new strategy of bothering people who are grocery shopping in Colorado (and, if it works, everywhere else):

The group will hold a news conference today on the west steps of the state Capitol to unveil the renewed effort. [...]

Organizers said Saturday they are banking on broad grassroots support, with volunteers circulating petitions at grocery stores, and a new game plan.

They've also re-written their legislation:

The new version of the measure "will protect every child, no matter their size, level of development, gender, age or race," said Jennifer Mason, spokeswoman for Personhood USA.

New language "will explain again that every human being is a person from their earliest moments," Mason said. "And it will include some extra information that hopefully will prohibit lies of our opponents. . . . It will be a departure from what we've done before."

Extra information, eh? I guess we shall see later today what the latest effort in extreme bullshittery looks like.

This new angle of attack against women being recognized as rights-bearing persons is not letting up. They may not win on the ballots but that's not the whole point for them, either. It's about conversation (as one of the GA legislators said). It's about trying to change the conversation and having it insidiously seep into collective thinking that "fertilized eggs are people" (and that "women are actual people with rights" are lies) so that eventually, maybe, they will get to win via ballots or legislation.