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Montana Senate Bans Abortion Personhood Amendment Defines Personhood to include Fetuses © Kristin Maun Feb 28, 2009 The Montana Senate has passed legislation giving legal rights "a human being at all stages of human development of life," effectively banning abortion. On February 26, 2009, the Montana Senate passed Senate Bill 406, the constitutional Personhood Amendment. by a vote of 26 to 24. The bill was written and introduced by Senator Dan McGee to give legal rights to fertilized eggs and fetuses by defining a person as "a human being at all stages of human development of life, including the state of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning, or condition of dependency." This is major change for Montana. As of January 2008, the state did not have any major abortion restrictions such as waiting periods, parental notification requirements or restrictions on government funding. Senate Bill 406 will now move to the Montana House of Representatives where it must achieve a majority vote of 74 to become part of the state's constitution. The bill also mentions putting the amendment on the ballot in November 2010 for Montana voters to make the ultimate decision. If it passes, the Personhood Amendment will become effective on January 1, 2011. Montana is the first state senate to pass a personhood act but it is not the first state to enact or consider such legislation. Earlier in the month, a similar personhood bill was passed by North Dakota's House of Representatives. The North Dakota Personhood of Children Act states, states, "For purposes of interpretation of the constitution and laws of North Dakota, it is the intent of the legislative assembly that an individual, a person, when the context indicates that a reference to an individual is intended, or a human being includes any organism with the genome of homo sapiens." In November 2008, Colorado's Amendment 48 was overwhelmingly rejected by 73 percent of voters. It was opposed by pro-choice groups as well as some anti-choice groups such as the National Right to Life Committee, the Catholic Conference of Colorado and Focus on the Family Action. The main problem with personhood legislation is its extreme wording. By declaring all fertilized eggs as legal persons, it makes abortion illegal with no exception for cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother. Critics of the personhood movement point out that this attempt by state legislatures to ban abortion has more adverse consequences on other health services, including contraception, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research. Similar issues have been raised about the language of Montana's amendment. The definition, "at all stages of human development of life," is extremely subjective and doesn't provide a medical, scientific or legal standard for determining when life begins. But it is by defining when life begins that Montana believes the amendment will not be in conflict with the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade that made abortion legal. The ruling said the judgment could be reconsidered once there was a standard for when life began. The Personhood Movement hopes to take advantage of this language through personhood legislation declaring that life begins at conception, therefore effectively banning abortion. The copyright of the article Montana Senate Bans Abortion in Gay/Gender Issues is owned by Kristin Maun. Permission to republish Montana Senate Bans Abortion in print or online must be granted by the author in writing. Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn