As Mississippi Republicans back away from the controversial personhood ballot initiative that would restrict reproductive rights in the state, Project New West's polling shows GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney's position on this national issue looks increasingly out-of-touch with a majority of voters.
The Mississippi personhood initiative, which has been overwhelmingly turned down in previous election cycles by voters in Colorado, would define the term "person" in the State Constitution to include fertilized human eggs, and grant fertilized embryos the same legal rights and protections afforded to people. The initiative is being promoted by a group called Personhood USA, which has a stated goal of putting the initiative on the ballot in all 50 states.
This week, conservative Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour distanced himself from the initiative. "I'm somebody that believes life begins at conception, that's one of the reasons I'm pro-life," Barbour said Wednesday on Fox News. "But a lot of pro-life people have problems with this particular language... There's concern this is ambiguous, even in an enormously pro-life state like mine, there is some concern about this."
While the ambiguity of the initiative may be cause for concern for some conservatives in Mississippi, it doesn't seem to faze Mitt Romney, who has said he'd support a constitutional amendment defining life as beginning at conception.
The problem for Romney is that, while most Americans would like to see fewer abortions, an overwhelming majority do not think that government should have a role in deciding whether a woman should have an abortion. A recent nationwide survey conducted by PNW shows that 80% of likely voters agreed with the statement that "government should not be getting involved in the decision to end a pregnancy, it's better left to a woman, her family and her faith."
If recent history is any indication, Romney is at serious risk of alienating mainstream voters. In 2010, Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck's early support for the Personhood amendment was effectively used against him in the general election. The initiative, which had already lost by a wide margin in 2008, was trounced in 2010, with roughly 70 percent voting against the measure -- including every Colorado county -- in what was considered a strong year for conservatives.
Despite his efforts to walk back some of his more extreme statements on abortion, Buck narrowly lost to Democrat Michael Bennet. Bennet's victory was widely attributed to his campaign's ability to cast Buck as an extremist on social issues.
Organizers of the Personhood amendment are currently working to put the measure in western presidential battlegrounds like Nevada, where recent Project New West polling showed that unaffiliated voters -- a crucial bloc -- identify as "pro-choice" over "pro-life" by a 2-1 margin.
In a GOP primary contest that remains highly competitive, Governor Romney no doubt sees an advantage in tacking to the right on social issues to appease the base with of his party. However, it's clear the American people are simply not with him on this issue.
Follow Jill Hanauer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ProjectNewWest
Their goal is to legislate laws that allow only those who agree with their views to have the right to vote.
Then, and only, then, can they claim that "The people have spoken," and govern accordingly.
The human reproductive system itself is the biggest abortionist of all. Fertilized cells routinely are rejected by the body, cells don't attach to the womb, miscarriages, etc.
Do you really want your sister/wife/'friend thrown in jail for a failed pregnancy?
Are the 2 cells in an immigrant woman's womb a citizen? If a single cell is a whole person, then should a fly with 250,000 cells in his brain alone be given voting rights?
Think about all the women claiming tax deductions for their invisible children.
Think about the teenage girl raped and knocked up by her ex-con uncle- Which is moral: Let a doctor remove a few cells / force victim to carry baby?
If you are pro-life then be consistent at least- young girls and women are PEOPLE TOO!
The reality is, these initiative have been trounced everywhere they've been raised. IF that happens in a place like Mississippi as well, then it will signal the end of the Religious Right's stranglehold on the Conservative agenda. I see no downside for the nation at large to this being put to a regional vote.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/24/america-pregnant-women-murder-charges
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Kimbrough was arrested at home and charged with "chemical endangerment" of her unborn child on the grounds that she had taken drugs during the pregnancy – a claim she has denied.
"That shocked me, it really did," Kimbrough said. "I had lost a child, that was enough."
She now awaits an appeal ruling from the higher courts in Alabama, which if she loses will see her begin a 10-year sentence behind bars. "I'm just living one day at a time, looking after my three other kids," she said. "They say I'm a criminal, how do I answer that? I'm a good mother."
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Bei Bei Shuai, 34, has spent the past three months in a prison cell in Indianapolis charged with murdering her baby. On 23 December she tried to commit suicide by taking rat poison after her boyfriend abandoned her.
Shuai was rushed to hospital and survived, but she was 33 weeks pregnant and her baby, to whom she gave birth a week after the suicide attempt and whom she called Angel, died after four days. In March Shuai was charged with murder and attempted foeticide and she has been in custody since without the offer of bail.
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If Mississippi want to jail young women for endangering their unborn children, then that's one more reason to let them live in that culture if you agree with it and one more reason not to go there (or to leave) if you disagree.
All that being said, my personally pro-choice self isn't sure how I feel about the 2nd story you cited. a 33 week fetus is viable. Federal law only permits abortion up to 24 weeks.