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Montana Abortion-Rights Opponents Renew Attempts At 'Personhood' Ballot Initiative

The Montana ProLife Coalition last week launched a campaign seeking a state ballot initiative that would propose defining "personhood" in the state constitution as "from the beginning of the biological development of that human being," the Great Falls Tribune reports. A required 48,674 signatures are needed to place the initiative on the November 2010 ballot. Abortion-rights opponents failed to collect enough signatures for a similar proposal last year. Former state Rep. Rick Jore, a member of the Constitution Party, on Wednesday submitted three versions of the proposal to the Montana Secretary of State"s Office. Jore also authored last year"s proposal.Allyson Hagen, executive director for NARAL Pro-Choice Montana, said, "Whether or not they get it on the ballot, I think that the vast majority of Montanans are going to oppose an extreme initiative like this one." She added, "I think Montanans believe very strongly in the right to privacy and [that] the decisions regarding pregnancy should be between a woman and her doctor, not with the Legislature or the government."Abortion-rights opponents last year tried and failed to put similar proposals before voters in Georgia and Oregon, and Colorado voters rejected a similar measure by a 3 to 1 margin. Hagen said that because the president supports abortion rights and Democrats have a majority in Congress, "antiabortion groups are looking to make movements in the states, feeling powerless at the federal level." Earlier this year, two bills (SB 406, SB 46) in the Montana Legislature that sought to grant constitutional rights to embryos failed to make it out of committee. The North Dakota Legislature recently rejected a similar proposal (Adams, Great Falls Tribune, 7/2).

USA Today Examines 'Incendiary Debate' Over Abortion Rights

Nearly 40 years after the Supreme Court"s decision in Roe v. Wade, the "incendiary debate over abortion rights endures" and continues to manifest itself in a number of ways, USA Today reports. According to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll, 78% of U.S. residents want abortion to be legal under at least some circumstances, with 21% saying it should be legal under any circumstance. According to the poll, 18% of respondents said that they want abortion always to be illegal. The poll also found that 46% of U.S. residents self-identify as "pro-choice," while 47% self-identify as "pro-life."Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said, "The enduring divide represents the reality that there are fundamental religious differences on the issue of abortion that do not exist on, say, campaign finance or even on health care." Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest said that abortion-rights opponents are mobilizing to urge congressional lawmakers to exclude abortion coverage and funding from any federal health reform legislation.During the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, the judge said that she does not believe previous court rulings on abortion rights have ended the national controversy surrounding the issue. According to USA Today, Sotomayor, who has never ruled on the issue, declined to reveal her personal position on abortion rights. Several antiabortion-rights advocates also protested during Sotomayor"s hearings (Biskupic, USA Today, 7/24).In addition, the Center for Reproductive Rights this week released a report that found physicians and employees of health care clinics providing abortion services in six states -- Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas -- face an increasing level of harassment and death threats. The report was based on a four-month investigation (AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/23). The report was tied to the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller (USA Today, 7/24). Operation Save America Director the Rev. Flip Benham, whose group is mentioned in the report, said the center is trying to limit the free-speech rights of abortion-rights opponents (AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/23).