You are here: Home » News » Family & Children » Personhood Ohio To Try, Try Again

Personhood Ohio To Try, Try Again

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on November 1, 2011.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine

Ohio’s Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine stopped Personhood Ohio’s attempts to get an amendment on the state constitution that would define “person” as “any human being at any stage of development, including fertilization.” That definition would not only outlaw abortion, it would end the use of many contraceptives and prevent saving women’s lives in the case of potentially deadly complications in a pregnancy.

Personhood Ohio announced on Monday that they would collect another 1,000 signatures, correct the technicality that caused DeWine to throw out their petition and just do the process all over again. Personhood Ohio Director Patrick Johnston said, in announcing the plan, “I disagree with the attorney general’s reasoning, but for the sake of time, this is the quickest way to resolve the dilemma.” Also the cheapest. Taking the case to court would have cost Personhood Ohio money that it may not have.

The Personhood movement is a nation-wide effort to create constitutional amendments that would outlaw abortion without mentioning abortion. They represent the extreme end of the anti-abortion movement because they would also prevent birth control and any exemptions for the life of the mother.

Like Herman Cain’s “no exemption” position, Personhood represents the best way for the anti-abortion movement to fail. Tens of millions of American women use contraceptives. Millions of American Catholics defy the Vatican to use birth control. The idea that a woman would be forced to die to prevent the termination of an lethally complicated pregnancy is abhorrent, even in cultures that outlaw abortion in every other circumstance.

As long as there are voice out there insisting that women should not be able to prevent unwanted pregnancies and that the single sperm-penetrated egg has more value than a woman’s life, the anti-abortion movement risks losing support.

In the vast middle, between the loud voices on both sides, are those who want to see pregnancies prevented instead of terminated and abortion to be accessible for those who need it, safe and rare. Until we start out-shouting the fanatics, the battle will rage on.