In the heart of the Bible Belt, a Mississippi initiative that would have defined life as beginning at fertilization also went down to defeat, ending a plan to use it to challenge Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established the right to abortion.
The so-called "personhood" initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of Mississippi voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted.
The measure divided the medical and religious communities and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support.
Opponents said the measure would have made birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. More specifically, the ballot measure called for abortion to be prohibited "from the moment of fertilization" ? wording that opponents suggested would have deterred physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn't survive.
Opponents also said supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest.
Amy Brunson voted against the measure, in part because she has been raped. She also has friends and family that had children through in vitro fertilization and she was worried this would end that process.
"The lines are so unclear on what may or may not happen. I think there are circumstances beyond everybody's control that can't be regulated through an amendment," said Brunson, a 36-year-old dog trainer and theater production assistant from Jackson.
Don't go getting all crazy yet, this was just too extreme. There needs to be better control over people using dnc's for birth control. They don't realise the harm they do to their utterus by this method. EDUCATION would be a good start not governmental controls.
Don't go getting all crazy yet, this was just too extreme. There needs to be better control over people using dnc's for birth control. They don't realise the harm they do to their utterus by this method. EDUCATION would be a good start not governmental controls.
but the same people don't want our teens to have access to non-abstinence education, condoms or other forms of birth control, until we act like rational people and acknowledge that teens have had sex and will have sex and form a real system of education and acceptance we will always look backwards and be backwards to much of the world
but the same people don't want our teens to have access to non-abstinence education, condoms or other forms of birth control, until we act like rational people and acknowledge that teens have had sex and will have sex and form a real system of education and acceptance we will always look backwards and be backwards to much of the world