Enacting a State Constitutional
Personhood Amendment that defines a person to include unborn
children
automatically makes killing an unborn child a crime punishable under
existing murder laws.
"Many
pro-life groups and lawmakers in the past 40 years have bobbed,
weaved and swerved around the abortion crisis instead of
confronting it head-on. Now
overcoming the Roe decision by legally declaring that
human beings are persons from the moment of fertilization is a
real possibility. In Mississippi,
Pro-Life Generation (sponsors of Initiative 24)
needs your help."
Those most vulnerable in our society are under attack. People’s
Initiative 24 goes beyond Personhood for Unborn Children to protect others
vulnerable in our society including the Elderly, Handicapped, and Infirmed.
Initiative 24 PROTECTS ALL LIFE EQUALLY and goes beyond words by
forcing the State to enforce equal protection of all human life.
In 2005, Pro-Life Dave introduced in Mississippi the first ever State
Personhood Amendment (aka Human
Life Amendment) in U.S. History. Today, the
Ultimate Human Life Amendment, now Initiative 24, still stands as the
strongest ever designed to:
to protect all human life equally.
protect all unborn children at all stages of development,
created from both natural and artificial means.
survive Federal Court challenges.
directly challenge and overturn Roe v. Wade
which we believe will trigger an end to all abortion throughout the
entire United States.
WE NEED YOUR HELP
By the end of December 2009 we need to raise 90,000 petition signatures
of registered voters in Mississippi. This petition calls for a state-wide
vote on Initiative 24 and lets the people decide if it should be a part of our
constitution.
The Pro-Life
Movement’s top goal since the early 1970s has been to get Congress to pass a
Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution knowing the effect would easily
overturn Roe v. Wade and abortion throughout America. In over 35 years Congress
has never allowed it to come to a vote.
A constitutional amendment is stronger than any law and is a primary and
permanent protection of the people's rights.
The only way to end abortion is through a constitutional amendment that
recognizes unborn children as ‘persons’ legally. Laws that ban abortion won’t
work. Only a precisely worded state human life amendment, like People’s
Initiative 24, has all of the critical legal elements required to overturn Roe v. Wade
and abortion throughout America, not just Mississippi.
The
Ultimate Human Life Amendment
The first State Human Life Amendment
(aka Personhood Amendment)
introduced in U.S. History.
Mississippi People's Initiative
24
We hold these truths to be
self-evident,
that all persons are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable Rights, that among these are the Right to
Life, that is, the Right to not
have one’s life taken from them. Therefore, the
government of the state of Mississippi shall recognize
and defend the God-given Right to Life of all persons
equally in accordance with Section 14 of the State
Constitution of 1890. The word "person" shall apply
to all human beings, regardless of race, color, creed,
religion, citizenship, ancestry, national origin, sex,
age, health, function, or condition of dependency, at
all stages of biological development from
fertilization until natural death.
No person shall
deprive another person of life by assisting or aiding
in their suicide. No person shall deprive an unborn
person of life; provided, however, that nothing in
this amendment shall prohibit a law allowing
justification to be shown for only those medical
procedures required to prevent the death of either the
pregnant woman or her unborn offspring as long as such
law requires every reasonable effort be made to
preserve the life of each.
No designated
funds are required to implement this amendment.
Section 14. Due process. - Mississippi Constitution "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property
except by due process of law."
Answer:
All legislative activity you've seen on the news to outright ban
abortion can easily be overturned by the Federal courts.
To understand the Federal Courts better let's
take a look at this question: Does a person have the right to make medical
decisions for themself? The common sense answer is obviously YES.
This is a fundamental right.
At present, all courts consider abortion a medical decision, so any legislative
approach that is worded to heavily restrict or outlaw abortion will fail because
the courts view it as ‘taking away’ from a
woman's rights, a legal 'negative'.
The only way to end abortion
is through a constitutional amendment that legally recognizes unborn children as
persons,
a legal 'positive'.
This grants recognition of the human
rights of unborn children and would automatically legally maneuver Federal
courts into doing the same.
This approach frames the question properly: Should we protect unborn children
from being killed since they are human beings? The common sense answer is
obviously YES. A baby's Right to Life outweighs the mother's fundamental
right to make her own medical decisions, except when saving her own life.
Answer: Initiative
24, The Ultimate Human Life Amendment, remains the strongest proposed Human Life
Amendment (aka Personhood Amendment) designed to overturn Roe v. Wade.
We believe that, in any Federal Court challenge, the Court will legally be
maneuvered into using Mississippi's definition of person. When this is
done Roe v. Wade will easily be overturned and a new 'federal' definition of
persons that includes unborn children will be the ‘law of the land’
automatically outlawing murder of the unborn (abortion) in all
states and territories.
For any State Human Life Amendment (aka Personhood
Amendment) to be successful it must be
capable of overturning Roe v. Wade.
Otherwise it can easily be nullified by a Federal Court.
Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center
reiterates this point:
"Without a direct challenge to Roe, any
proposal to protect innocent human life from abortion is utterly
meaningless."
Only a properly worded state constitutional amendment has the
power to protect unborn children and overturn Roe v. Wade. A
constitutional provision has more weight than laws passed by any legislature and
is considered more weighty by Federal judges and Supreme Court Justices because
it was enacted (voted on) by the will of the people. It is
simply considered the highest form of political expression and highest form of protection of people's rights.
[ close ]
The wording of a State Human Life Amendment (aka
Personhood Amendment) is extremely crucial. It must contain
these following elements.
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
The Supreme Court LOOKS AT BOTH a state's laws
(including constitution) and the state's actions, what they do.
To convince the Supreme Court any state is serious about a
declaration that an unborn child is a person, the state must
enforce the amendment. In Initiative 24, the Ultimate
Human Life Amendment, we place this mandate upon the state to do
just that:
"...the
government of the state of Mississippi shall recognize and
defend the God-given Right to Life of all persons equally..."
So now the state is forced to halt all prosecution for
murder (not likely) or will have to start prosecuting for murder
of the unborn.
PERSONHOOD & THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE
This bears repeating: We have laws against murdering a
person. The only problem is current federal case law does
not recognize an unborn child as a person. So using a
constitutional amendment process we can establish the definition
of a person to include an unborn child.
From the Ultimate
Human Life Amendment, Initiative 24: "The
word "person" shall apply to all human beings... ...at all
stages of biological development from fertilization until
natural death."
Person must be defined to
include unborn children
and must include provisions for non-sexual, artificial
laboratory creation of unborn children. In addition the
definition of personhood must be connected to the due process
clause already in the state constitution which reads:
"Section 14. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty,
or property except by due process of law."
Initiative 24 states: "in
accordance with Section 14" This is in most state
constitutions in one form or another but an unborn child would
have to be convicted of a capital crime and tried before they
could be sentenced to death -- again not likely.
NO EXCEPTIONS
If people and politicians only knew that providing an
exception for rape or incest is what got us into this entire
mess with abortion in the first place they might think twice.
If any exception is given to kill an unborn baby, except when
saving the life of the mother, then the state is proving that it
does not believe an unborn child is a human being. This
was the case prior to Roe v. Wade and the case for the State of
Texas under which Roe came from. In Roe, Texas argued
before the Supreme Court that unborn children were human beings
and persons due protection. The Supreme Court did not
believe them because their laws and actions of the state said
otherwise, as in point #1 above shows. Their talk, their
law (and constitution) must match their actions.
U.S.
Supreme
Court Justice
Harry Blackmun Architect of the
1973
Roe v. Wade Decision
"[If the]
suggestion of personhood [for the unborn] is established, the [abortion
rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then
guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."
Leslie Riley, the official sponsor of
Initiative 26 and the head of
Personhood Mississippiendorsed
our Personhood Amendment in 2007:
"He (Pro-Life Dave) needs the help
of the rest of us pro-life Mississippians to volunteer to get the
petition out and money to fund his efforts."
See Full Quote
Mississippi Initiative #26 - Personhood Amendment
- Actual Wording:
Section 33. Person Defined. As used in this
Article III of the state constitution, "The term 'person' or 'persons' shall
include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the
functional equivalent thereof."
This initiative shall not require any
additional revenue for implementation.
Initiative 26 is
Fatally Flawed!
The use of "Section 33."
and "in this Article III" in the Initiative 26 wording is a clear
attempt to insert itself into the Mississippi Bill of Rights (Article III),
the last section being Section 32. This intention is also clearly
stated in their
official filing letter: "Article III ... THE ADDITION OF A NEW
SECTION." This clearly violates
Section 273(5)a of the MS Constitution's Initiative Amendment Process,
which states:
(5) The initiative process shall not be
used:
(a) For the proposal, modification or repeal of any portion of the Bill
of Rights of this Constitution;
This is a real embarrassment for the sponsors of Initiative 26,
Personhood Mississippi, and reveals a serious lack of thorough legal research
conducted. The only outcome for Initiative 26 is to be kick-out due to
its clear violation of the Mississippi Constitution. Pro-Life Dave
discovered this in early May '09 and shortly after learned that attorneys
for Personhood USA
agreed with the assessment of this fatal flaw. [
Search MS Constitution & MS Laws ]
Personhood
Mississippi is led by Leslie Riley, the official sponsor of Initiative 26
and is an off-shoot of
Personhood USA which supports Personhood Amendments around the country.
Leslie
Riley, from Pontotoc, Mississippi has worked in the conservative
movement for many years. I (Pro-Life Dave) personally know,
respect, and feel a kinship to Leslie. He is also the chairman
of the Mississippi
Constitution Party and this is where he and I met and got to know each other.
Cal Zastrow, is
a long time Pro-Life activist and a founding father in the
Personhood Movement. In
2006, Cal introduced in Michigan, after us in Mississippi, the second
ever State Human Life Amendment (aka Personhood Amendment) in U.S. History.
Their campaign did not succeed but Cal continued on in Personhood work also
working on the Colorado Personhood Amendment in 2007 & 2008. That Colorado
campaign was the first in U.S. History to get a Personhood Amendment
on a state-wide ballot but unfortunately the voters rejected it.
From there in
2008, Cal co-founded with the leaders from the Colorado campaign,
Personhood
USA, a new national
organization that supports Personhood Amendments around the U.S.
Mississippi
is
a long time Pro-Life activist and a founding father in the
Personhood Movement. In
2006, 
