Colorado Abortion-Personhood Amendment Gets Backing of 70 Physicians

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 28, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Colorado Abortion-Personhood Amendment Gets Backing of 70 Physicians

RSS Newsfeed Email article
Add to My Yahoo! Printer friendly

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 28
, 2008

Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) — More than 70 doctors and physicians have endorsed the constitutional amendment that would define unborn children as persons under law and could lead to a major abortion battle. The Colorado Secretary of State certified Amendment 48 in May and will place it on the November ballot.

The measure would define unborn children as persons under state law from the moment of fertilization.

It could set off a statewide battle over abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other practices that kill people before birth.

Now, Colorado for Equal Rights, the group leading the fight for the amendment, tells LifeNews.com that it enjoys the support of over 70 physicians and pharmacists, including neonatologists, family physicians, OBGYNs, pediatricians, and other physicians nationwide.

These physicians have stated that they concur with the statement, "A ‘person’ includes any human from the time of fertilization."

The list includes Edmund D. Pellegrino, a Georgetown University professor and member of the President’s Council on Bioethics; Dr. Gene Rudd, the vice president of the Christian Medical Association;and Dr. John Lane, a board member for the Catholic Medical Association.

Kristi Burton, the young woman behind the amendment, told LifeNews.com, "We are honored to have received these endorsements from such respected physicians."

"Science clearly proves that life begins at the time of fertilization. We are secure in the fact that we have science and reason on our side, and we are pleased to have the medical community supporting our efforts," she added.

"As support for Amendment 48 accumulates, we are very encouraged as we get closer to November’s election," she continued. "Every human life should be protected, and the endorsements we continue to receive prove that our easy to understand amendment is one that all Coloradans can support."

To qualify Amendment 48, the pro-life group submitted almost twice as many signatures as necessary.

They needed 76,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot but turned in 131,245 in May. The Secretary of State’s Office’s random sampling indicated that there were 103,377 valid signatures.

Abortion advocates have already staged rallies and are organizing efforts to defeat the measure at the polls in the fall. They are expected to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat it.

Pro-life advocates in Colorado are split on the idea with some favoring the proposal and others saying it would be overturned in the courts as unconstitutional and that pro-life groups should continue fighting to change the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed virtually unlimited abortions for the last 35 years.

The Personhood Amendment states: "Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. Article II of the constitution of the state of Colorado is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read: Section 31. Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the terms ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization."

Related web sites:
Colorado for Equal Rights – https://www.coloradoforequalrights.com

 

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com

Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.