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Nov. 12, 2009
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Lawsuit challenges "Personhood" abortion petition

By ED VOGEL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY — The ACLU, Planned Parenthood and several individuals filed a lawsuit today challenging the language in the “Personhood” petition whose sponsors want to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing abortion.

Maggie McLetchie, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the description in the Personhood petition doesn’t explain to voters what its objective is.

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    • “The petition and the description are misleading,” she said, explaining the lawsuit filed in Carson City District Court. “The whole thing is a mess.”

    If the lawsuit is successful, the petition still could be allowed on the November ballot if the language was modified to meet a judge’s requirements.

    Richard Ziser, the conservative Las Vegas activist who announced the Personhood petition drive on Oct. 21, said it is clear from litigation that the ACLU and Planned Parenthood understand the petition’s objectives.

    “It is to protect the life of the unborn,” he said. “They would prefer we used the term abortion. We will see what we will end up with.”

    Ziser said previously that he expected the lawsuit and planned for litigation costs, and decided to hold off on circulating the petition among Nevada voters until legal challenges are settled.

    Besides trying to stop abortion, the petition would prevent the state government from making end-of-life decisions for old and sick people, he said. That issue emerged at the federal level earlier this year during heated discussions on a provision in the health care reform bill before Congress.

    But the description language in the petition does not even mention the word abortion. Instead it applies the term “person” to every human being.

    According to the petition, persons or human beings “include everyone possessing a human genome specific for an individual member of the human specifies, from the beginning of his or her biological development, without discrimination as to age, health, reproduction method, function, physical or mental dependency or cognitive ability.”

    McLetchie said the petition is not only an attempt to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion, but also an attempt to outlaw abortions in cases of rape or incest.

    She said many people oppose abortions, but often not in cases of rape or incest.

    McLetchie said the petition should make it clear just what it intends to accomplish.

    “They seek to outlaw a huge range of reproductive services,” said McLetchie, who wants the court to prevent the petition from being placed on the ballot. “Under the petition, fetuses could sue and be sued. What they are proposing is so radical and would clog up the courts.”

    The petition could even ban birth control pills and emergency contraception, she said.

    Besides the legal challenge, the petition has a lot of other hurdles to overcome.

    Nevada voters in 1990 passed a referendum that put the Roe v. Wade decision into state law. This law cannot be changed without a vote of the people.

    For the petition to make the ballot, Ziser’s Personhood Nevada group needs to collect 97,002 valid signature from registered voters by Aug. 4.

    Since the petition proposes changing the state constitution, voters would have to approve it in both the 2010 and 2012 general elections before it could become state law.

    And even it did pass, it probably could not go into effect until the federal Roe v. Wade decision was overturned, Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes said. That would require action by the U.S. Supreme Court itself.

    Recent polls show 70 percent to 75 percent of respondents support women’s right to choose to have an abortion, according to Elisa Maser, the legislative lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in Nevada.

    PersonhoodUSA co-founder Keith Mason said last month that his Christian anti-abortion group is trying in 30 states to pass laws or constitutional amendments that define all human beings as persons from the moment of biological development.

    He said 50 million abortions have occurred in the United States since Roe v. Wade.

    Last year Colorado voters rejected a Personhood amendment by a vote of 73 percent to 27 percent.

    The “personhood” language is significant to supporters because it was used in the majority opinion written by U.S. Justice Harry Blackmun in the Roe v. Wade decision.

    Blackmun said if “personhood” could be established for a fetus, then a “fetus’ right to life would be guaranteed” by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    Some legal scholars, however, challenge what Blackmun intended by his statement, saying he was being ironic.

     

    Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.

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    Vegasguy wrote on November 13, 2009 12:14 AM: I think this amendment is fine, though I wish it were worded differently. In today's day and age, there is no reason (besides rape and the extremely rare failure of contraception) for a woman to get pregnant if she does not want to. There are so many contraceptives that all work near 99.9% of the time. So what's everyone's problem?

    Also how am I forcing my beliefs on anyone? I vote and you vote. If more people vote like me then our democracy has spoken. If more people vote like you, then our democracy has spoken. Are you forcing your beliefs on me because you want to keep abortion legal in all cases?


    Vegasguy wrote on November 13, 2009 12:14 AM: I think this amendment is fine, though I wish it were worded differently. In today's day and age, there is no reason (besides rape and the extremely rare failure of contraception) for a woman to get pregnant if she does not want to. There are so many contraceptives that all work near 99.9% of the time. So what's everyone's problem?

    Also how am I forcing my beliefs on anyone? I vote and you vote. If more people vote like me then our democracy has spoken. If more people vote like you, then our democracy has spoken. Are you forcing your beliefs on me because you want to keep abortion legal in all cases?


    Hubba Bubba wrote on November 12, 2009 11:45 PM: "I get so TIRED of the religious right "

    Don't worry, we get really sick of you, too.


    BobbyG wrote on November 12, 2009 11:31 PM: The authoritarian narcissism of the the self-appointed Morally Wonderfuls knows no limit. This whole "personhood-at-conception" is beyond stupid.

    See

    http://bgladd.blogspot.com/2008/04/diploid-dave-et-al.html


    melen0640 wrote on November 12, 2009 09:23 PM: I get so TIRED of the religious right
    trying to impose their views on everyone. If you dont want an abortion fine but dont try to tell someone who believes differently what they should do!!!!


    Tim wrote on November 12, 2009 07:16 PM: Truly, thank goodness for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Right to lifers, go adopt some unwanted children!
    ---------------
    Agreed. There are over half a million children in this country in need of adoption. I want to hear the "pro-lifers'" stories about all of the abandoned, crack-addicted babies they've lined up to adopt. C'mon, let's hear those stories roll in. You want to claim the sanctity of life? Does it stop at birth in your eyes, or do you actually walk your walk? Let us hear the stories of your valor.


    booey wrote on November 12, 2009 07:07 PM: Truly, thank goodness for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Right to lifers, go adopt some unwanted children!


    NativeNevadian wrote on November 12, 2009 06:55 PM: Abortion is not murder, why because the "soul" doesn't enter the body until the baby is born.........

    Against abortion don't have one! Stop pushing your religious beliefs on others.


    Yer Mammy wrote on November 12, 2009 06:24 PM: "I am so sick of these right to lifers trying to manipulate the system. If I was a 43 year old woman whose birth control failed and I got pregnant, and was not ALLOWED to get an abortion, who will take care of that down syndrome baby? Not me, I will be forced to give it up for adoption because I could not afford any more children because I am unemployed, and homeless with the foreclosure crisis.
    Thank you Democrats!!!"

    Troll detected. Auto-ignore engaged.


    Fred Hall wrote on November 12, 2009 04:55 PM: The Bible clearly, without any waffling, CLEARLY says WOMEN are not capable of making their own decisions. Men are the deciders, and that is right from God. Abortion is proof positive God has it right. It is up to Man to decide what happens to women when they are pregnant. If you get raped or raped by your Daddy, its to bad. You must raise that baby. Lets quit pussy footing around this issue, or non issue. Life is life and you as a women are put here for ONE purpose only, to serve MAN, and bear children. Rape has no bearing its in the Bible.


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