The Irish Times - Thursday, November 10, 2011

Mississippi voters reject bid to make it first US state to ban abortion

MISSISSIPPI – Voters in Mississippi rejected a ballot initiative that would have made the state the first in the US to ban abortion by declaring that life begins at conception. The so-called personhood bid lost today by a margin of 58.6 per cent to 41.4 per cent, with 52 per cent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.

The amendment to the state constitution would have redefined the term “person” to include “every human being from the moment of fertilisation, cloning or the equivalent thereof”. The measure would have bestowed legal rights on fertilised eggs and cut off access to abortion by equating it with murder, making no exception for rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger.

Medical groups warned it might have criminalised contraception and miscarriages while limiting access to treatments such as in-vitro fertilisation. – (Bloomberg)

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