DENVER—Abortion-rights groups have until next week to appeal the language of a proposed ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg, either inside or outside the womb, as a person.
The secretary of state’s three-person title board on Wednesday crafted language for a constitutional amendment that would ban abortions. It would define humans as existing from the moment of fertilization and extend the Colorado Constitution’s inalienable rights, equality of justice and due process of law to them.
Arguments by reproduction rights attorney Kara Veitch that the measure’s language be rejected—on the grounds it wasn’t a single-subject measure because it applies to three different sections of the constitution—were dismissed.
Despite it affecting Article II, sections 3, 6 and 25, the board, which includes Deputy Secretary of State William Hobbs, cited a common thread of basic human rights.
Kristine Burton, 19, is working with Colorado for Equal Rights to get the measure on the ballot.
“Every life needs to be protected,” said Burton, of El Paso County. “A fetus is a separate person from the mother.”
The group would need more than 76,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said 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.
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Lizzy Annison said it will work with the legal and medical community to identify all the consequences of the proposed amendment, which Annison said could extend far beyond access to abortion.
