Colorado Antiabortion-Rights Advocates Begin Campaign For New 'Personhood' Amendment

This week, abortion-rights opponents in Colorado began collecting signatures in an attempt to place a "personhood" amendment before voters that would give human embryos legal protection as people under the state constitution, the AP/CBS4 reports. The advocates are trying to collect enough signatures to place the proposed amendment on the state's 2010 ballot. Voters in 2008 voted three to one against a similar measure that would have granted rights to fertilized eggs. The latest version of the amendment replaces "fertilized" with the phrase "the beginning of the biological development." Supporters claim that voters in the 2008 election might have been confused by the wording and visualized chicken eggs. The Colorado Title Board approved the new wording of the amendment earlier this month, a necessary step before advocates could begin gathering signatures (AP/CBS4, 8/25).


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