Personhood Amendment Likely To Pass in Colorado? Say It Ain’t So!

It seems that the  efforts of the personhood amendment zombie promoters, who’ve now revived themselves for the 3^rd time in 6 years,  may actually succeed this time – horror of horrors.  According to The Colorado Springs Independent (‘Personhood by any other name’, p. 12), while a reasonable person might expect Colorado Amendment 67 to “go down in flames come Nov. 4th",  a Sept. 26^th email from Planned Parenthood showed it actually passing!

Why?  According to the piece:

“Although Amendment 67 redefines the unborn as people …..supporters have sold this bill as something more popular: a law intended to create penalties for forcibly causing a woman to miscarry”.

In other words, these reprobates are framing it as a “woman friendly” bill which effectively provides right wing leverage in the war on women. Hence, a majority of voters appear to be leaning to it for this reason, and in a year when Democratic Party capital is down – and in a purple state- it could happen.

 But the dangers in passing this atrocity are clearly not fully grasped by those polled. According to Lynn Paltrow,  President of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and a civil rights lawyer, if 67 goes through and is added to the state Constitution, “lawmakers couldn’t alter its language to narrow its wide-ranging consequences.”

 According to Paltrow, the way the Amendment is written if a pregnant woman has an abortion she’d be charged with first degree murder or if she smokes cigarettes and anything goes amiss she could be charged with child abuse. To back her claims up, Paltrow has documented hundreds of cases including the following (ibid.):

-        In 2004, Melissa Ann Rowland was charged with murder in Utah after one of her twins was stillborn. Doctors had warned her to get a C-section and she refused. She eventually received 18 months probation for the lesser counts of child endangerment.

-        In 2009, Samantha Burton showed signs of premature labor at 25 weeks pregnant. Her doctor found she wasn’t in labor  but refused to allow her to leave a Florida hospital for a second opinion and obtained a court order requiring Burton to undergo all medical procedures the doctor advised. The baby, which was then removed by C-section, was stillborn. Only later did a higher court agree the woman’s rights were violated.

-        In 2010, Christine Taylor fell down the stairs after feeling lightheaded. After confiding to a nurse she considered abortion at one point in her pregnancy she was arrested for attempted suicide.

 The actual inspiration for Amendment 67 emerged when the eight month old son of Heather Surovik was killed when a drunken driver smashed into her car. She was told the driver faced many charges, but these didn’t include any charge for the death of the fetus- because Colorado law didn’t allow for it. (Only full fledged legal persons can be murdered or 'manslaughtered'.)

Rep. Mike Foote had earlier tried to introduce legislation to enable criminal penalties for forced miscarriages but this didn’t satisfy Surovik. She didn’t just want a law that punished crimes against a pregnant woman, but against the fetus – recognized as a full person in its own right.

 Of course, the Personhood proponents deny that anything as extreme as documented by Lynn Paltrow would occur.  According to Jennifer Mason, communications director for Personhood USA, quoted in the article:

 

“These outrageous claims are just scare tactics.”

 Hmmmmm….sounds remarkably similar to what the pro-fracking PR puppets and other oil industry lackeys say when we warn about fracking contaminating water supplies, as well as soil and air.

 One hopes the voters will get their bearings, and understand the consequences, before they cast any ballots to allow this travesty to become law.