8mm
Posted on 05/14/2008 5:03:25 PM PDT by wagglebee
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) -- The Colorado pro-life group supporting an amendment to the state constitution that would define unborn children as persons under law submitted almost twice as many signatures as necessary. Supporters needed 76,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot but turned in 131,245.
Colorado for Equal Rights, led by 20-year-old Kristi Burton, was behind the signature-gathering effort.
"The main thing the constitution is supposed to do is to protect us," the 20-year-old Burton said Tuesday at a press conference after submitting the signatures to the Secretary of State. "But who is that 'us'? There is currently no definition of person in the constitution."
State officials have 30 days to certify the signatures are valid and qualify the initiative for the November ballot, but Burton says she expected to hear back about the certification in a week or two.
Mark Hotaling, executive director of the Christian Family Alliance of Colorado, is also supporting the effort.
"Come November, Colorado is going to be ground zero for the issue of life in America," he said, according to a Denver Post report.
Toni Panetta, spokeswoman for the pro-abortion Protect Families, Protect Choice organization told the Post her group will strongly oppose the proposal.
"This amendment could make abortion illegal, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the life or health of a woman is at risk," she claimed. "It may encroach on everything from birth control to stem-cell research to inheritance rights."
Members of the group rallied on the capitol steps earlier this month and claimed the measure would violate women's right to basic health care.
The measure would define unborn children as persons under state law from the moment of fertilization and it could set off a statewide battle over abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other practices that kill people before birth.
"May 13th will be a day to be remembered as a defining moment in the effort to defend all human life," Burton told LifeNews.com before turning in the signatures.
She added: "We are seeing an awakening of the powerful grassroots movement, and thousands of individuals along with myself are making the commitment not to rest until every human being is equally protected by love and by law."
Pro-life advocates in Colorado are split on the idea with some favoring the proposal and others saying it would be overturned in the courts as unconstitutional and that pro-life groups should continue fighting to change the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed virtually unlimited abortions for the last 35 years.
Related web sites:
Colorado for Equal Rights - http://www.voteyescolorado.com
NO, it would give babies their RIGHT to LIFE.
Pro-Life Ping
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Excellent job!
KUDOS COLORADO !
NONSENSE!!! This is EXACTLY the way to end this abomination right now!
According to their own 1973 decree, it is the only thing that would pass as Constitutional.
Congressman Duncan Hunter’s Life at Conception Act, if passed, would define life as beginning at conception. If that happened, the Preamble, 5th, and the 14th amendments would apply to protecting the lives of the unborn. An admission made by the court in their Roe v. Wade ruling when Justice Blackmun wrote; If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.
"This legislation ensures that the unborn are protected from abortion and further provided the same Constitutional protections provided to all Americans."
When Congressman Hunter introduced the legislation this year he had over 100 co-sponsors.
It hasn't been that long ago that we didn't need a written definition of "person" in every document to know what it meant. The whole concept of words not having any meaning is a very recent development.
Duncan Hunter rocks!
Yep, marriage means ONE man and ONE woman, person means ANY PERSON, God means GOD, it’s amazing what we need to spell out these days. Some out there seem to think that because the Founding Fathers never said that it wasn’t okay to murder the unborn, the sick and the elderly that they must have been in favor of it.
May God bless this work!
Yes, and won’t it be great when we can’t put pregnant women in prison because we would be unlawfully imprisoning an innocent person?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.