Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Mississippi Personhood Amendment Is Defeated

What truly excellent news:
A constitutional amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person failed on the ballot in Mississippi on Tuesday, dealing the so-called "personhood" movement another blow.

Mississippi would have become the first state to define a fertilized egg as a person, a measure which was aimed at outlawing abortion in the state but, opponents contended, would have led to all kinds of unintended consequences.

In the end, those concerns won out in a strongly anti-abortion state. The amendment trailed 59 percent to 41 percent with more than half of precincts reporting.
Phew.

In less good news, Mississippi's Initiative 27, which will require photo IDs to vote and will thus disenfranchise voters, passed. For the potential effects of photo ID laws, see here.

Indiana also led the way in photo ID voting laws (of course we did), and, unfortunately, the Supreme Court has already upheld the constitutionality of such laws after it was challenged in Indiana.

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