Bring Back the Woman!

by Maria Nakae

Here in California, we are no strangers to repeated attempts at passing thinly veiled anti-choice ballot initiatives that would take away the rights of women and youth and endanger their health and safety. Remember Prop 73 in 2005, which tried to mandate parental notification for minors accessing abortion services? Or Prop 85 in 2006 and Prop 4 in 2008, which were almost identical measures? None of them passed, although the proponents blatantly claimed victory just for forcing progressive organizations to divert their resources to fight tirelessly to defeat these initiatives.

While California is spared this year from these ridiculously obsessive anti-choice efforts, Colorado is not. For the second year in a row, the state is facing a so-called “fetal personhood” initiative which is even more ridiculous than parental notification. Amendment 62 reads:

"As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the term "person" shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."

The language may seem benign enough at first, but knowing who’s behind it can help us quickly connect the dots. Anti-choice proponents have been trying to pass similar initiatives all across the county, which refer to the fetus as if it’s completely separate from the pregnant woman who is carrying it and ignores her own life, her rights and her experiences. Not only does the measure make no sense, it could cause widespread harm to women and families in Colorado – as well as women and families across the country – by demonizing their decisions and possibly even criminalizing contraception and miscarriage, not to mention its obvious attempt to ban the right to abortion services.

Thank goodness for groups like Choice USA, a member of the EMERJ Strategy Team, for exposing the absurdity of these measures with this hilarious video:



Watch it, share it, and support women and families in Colorado and everywhere by making sure that we vote these measures down every time they arise. Read more in Choice USA Executive Director’s article, “Where’s the Woman,” on Huffington Post.