Press Room

For Immediate Release

November 14, 2007

Colorado Supreme Court Paves Way for
Personhood Constitutional Amendment

Contact : Peggy Hamill, State Director, (414) 416-0489 or
Virginia Zignego, Communications Director, (262) 796-1111; cell (262) 370-3993

Denver, Colorado – The Colorado Supreme Court issued a decision Tuesday permitting Colorado for Equal Rights to begin gathering signatures for a state ballot initiative to establish legal personhood for human beings from the moment of conception. The proposed constitutional amendment would define “any human being from the moment of fertilization” as a “person” in three parts of the Colorado Constitution. Colorado for Equal Rights is now gathering the requisite 76,000 signatures to place the issue on the November 2008 ballot.

In Denver this week for a pro-life leaders’ summit, Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Peggy Hamill made the following comments in response to the court ruling:

“Restoring personhood to the preborn child, with respect to the right to life and without exception, would oblige Colorado to ban all abortions - a direct and necessary challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision. Coloradoans are simply losing patience. They are no longer waiting for the ‘stars to align’ on the U.S. Supreme Court or for the U.S. Congress to exercise its constitutional and moral duty.

“This is an exciting and hopeful time for the pro-life movement. The Colorado personhood petition drive and similar efforts in other states are galvanizing pro-lifers across the country. The Colorado amendment would restore to the preborn child, as a person, the same right to live enjoyed by her older brother or grandmother. The preborn child would no longer be outside the protection of the law; he or she could not be denied the equal protection of the laws.

“Americans, born and preborn, deserve total and permanent legal protection of their right to life; an inalienable right grounded in natural law. It is the foremost duty of the state to protect its citizens, especially those most vulnerable. The State of Colorado is on its way to doing just that. We commend Colorado for Equal Rights on their boldness in the defense of human life and, though from afar, Pro-Life Wisconsin will assist them in any way we can. The time to end abortion is NOW!”

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