After a lopsided defeat in Mississippi, Personhood USA’s state affiliates said that they will continue to push for personhood laws throughout the country. The group is pushing to pass personhood laws or set up referendums in states including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon and maybe even a second vote in Mississippi.
Personhood Nevada blamed the “liberal national media” for the defeat in Mississippi:
"We are disappointed with what happened in Mississippi, but we are moving forward with Personhood in Nevada," said Candy Best, spokeswoman for the state branch of the nationwide, religious-based organization that wants to end legal abortions. "They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us in Mississippi. Fear causes people to hesitate in doing the right thing."
Best on Wednesday blamed misleading reports by the "liberal national media" for the defeat of the Mississippi ballot question.
The personhood campaign in Ohio is also moving forward on their plans for a referendum:
Patrick Johnston, an Ohio physician and organizer of the movement in this state, said his group is not daunted by the measure’s third defeat, saying efforts to get it on the ballot in Ohio are undeterred.
“We are never going to give up,” Johnston said, “This is the greatest human-rights crisis in our generation.”
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“We have science and divine law on our side. With God’s help, we will win through.”
In Montana, personhood advocates maintained that they have more momentum than ever to put a personhood amendment on the ballot:
The initiative is known as CI-108 in Montana, and more than 48,000 Montana voters would need to sign the petition for it to make it onto the November 2012 ballot.
This is the third attempt in Montana to get the measure before voters. Montana Pro Life Coalition volunteer, Cal Pastrow, says the petition had enough signatures last year, but the state determined that too many were invalid.
"We are going to turn in all the signatures a lot earlier, and we're going to do quality control ourselves before we turn them in to make sure we have enough qualified signatures from all the districts necessary. Plus, more and more people are getting on board with 'Personhood USA'. Here in Montana our email list and mailing list have both increased," Pastrow said.
A Republican state legislator in Alabama also thinks that a personhood law is “something that Alabamians would want”:
The defeat of amendment in Mississippi hasn't deterred Alabama State Senator Phil Williams from pushing for a similar proposal.
Williams got an similar bill through the Senate this past year, but it didn't come up for a floor vote in the House.
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But, he said he'll probably substitute it with a constitutional amendment version that would require the approval of voters. Williams said he's confident that will happen, and that it will be upheld by the courts.
He said, "Number one, I think that this is a matter of state's rights, that we can do this, and, I think that this is something that Alabamians would want."
Senator Rusty Glover of Semmes said he's aware of the legislation, but wants to make sure it doesn't meet the same fate as the Mississippi version.
