Kristine Burton, a 19-year-old student who opposes abortion, has a ballot question for Colorado voters in 2008: Would they approve an amendment to the state constitution that would define the beginning of personhood as fertilization of an egg, inside or outside the womb?
The secretary of state’s three-person title board held a hearing on the anti-abortion initiative Wednesday afternoon.
Working with Burton’s attorney, Mark Meuser, the board crafted ballot language for an amendment “defining the term ‘person’ to include any human being from the moment of fertilization as ‘person’ is used in those provisions of the Colorado Constitution relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice and due process of law.”
The provisions that would be affected are Article II, sections 3, 6 and 25.
Attorney Kara Veitch, who represents four women involved with various reproductive-rights groups, opposed the measure’s wording.
She said it is not a single-subject question, as required by state law, because it applies to three different sections of the constitution.
The board, including Deputy Secretary of State William Hobbs, disagreed, citing a common thread of basic human rights.
Supporters and opponents have a week to appeal the board’s language. Then Burton’s group, Colorado for Equal Rights, must collect more than 76,000 signatures to get the question on the ballot.
“Every life needs to be protected,” said Burton, of El Paso County. “A fetus is a separate person from the mother.”
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said in a statement that it opposes defining “an egg as a person.”
“The proponents of this initiative have been clear. Their intent is to destroy the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision which legalized abortion,” Planned Parenthood president Vicki Cowart said.
“Historically, Coloradans have been very moderate in their positions on reproductive health. They believe that the decision about whether and when to have children is a personal and family decision. The government shouldn’t be involved.”
Planned Parenthood will work with the legal and medical community to identify all the consequences of the proposed amendment, which, spokeswoman Lizzy Annison said, could extend far beyond access to abortion.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
