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With its roots in Colorado, supporters of giving human rights to embryos would like to take their case to all 50 states.

Arvada-based Personhood USA Ń a pro-life movement with the virtual goal of banning abortion by defining a “person” as “every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being” Ń has already begun mobilizing in 32 states, including Colorado. 

By 2010, they would like to have so-called Personhood initiatives in all 50 states.

“Every Personhood attempt is a success,” said co-founder Keith Mason. “We are growing by leaps and bounds, and every attempt offers new opportunities to educate Americans about the value of life.”

Mason’s opponents, however, beg to differ on the topic of Personhood initiatives being a success. They point out that a similar initiative in Colorado saw a crushing defeat in 2008, with only 27 percent of voters backing the cause.

“Considering the fact that Colorado voters defeated this by a three-to-one margin last time around and that they’re bringing this back again, begs the question, ‘Do they really have the Colorado voters in their best interest, or are they really going after a national agenda?’” asked Monica McCafferty, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

Mason’s group views the 2008 campaign as a success because of the lessons learned from it. One such lesson was to strike the controversial word “fertilization” from the proposal and instead to replace it with “biological development.”

The all-volunteer petition drive is on track to gain the 76,047 signatures required to place the amendment on the November 2010 Colorado ballot, said Mason. The group has until February to hand in the signatures Ń exactly 100 days, according to a countdown on its Web site.

Mason believes the political climate in 2010 will be conducive to Personhood amendments across the country because he believes conservative-minded voters and independent voters turned conservative will prevail. He points to recent Democrat election losses in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races as examples.

“Based on our growth for the first year it’s a reasonable goal to be in all 50 states by the end of 2010, and we believe that 2010 is going to be a very important year for us based on the election that we had just a couple days ago,” said Mason. “Conservatives came out to vote because there’s angst against the current administration.”

But McCafferty says opposition is already mobilizing and will be ready to once again defeat the Colorado initiative in 2010. Critics say Personhood initiatives only limit family planning choices.

One of the biggest concerns to opponents is that personhood measures could turn doctors into criminals by making it illegal to perform in vitro fertilization procedures, prescribing birth control pills, or even conducting emergency procedures on pregnant women, such as if a fertilized egg becomes lodged in a woman’s fallopian tubes.

Opponents also raise fears over the possibility of the ballot initiative essentially banning abortion and paving the way for a challenge of Roe v. Wade, setting a precedent for cases across the country. 

“It’s another sneaky attempt to ban abortion and limit access to birth control, and put government, lawyers and the courts into a very personal and private decision that essentially should be made by a woman in privacy with her doctor Ń that doctor-patient relationship is very important and we need to preserve that,” said McCafferty. 

“What we’re seeing is slightly different language but the same measure with the same problems,” she continued. “It goes too far and it’s just bad medicine, bad policy and bad law.”

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