In a victory for the pro-life camp, a motion filed by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to remove the Mississippi Personhood Amendment from the ballet has been denied.
The one-sentence amendment, Initiative Measure Number 26, reads, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.”
ACLU and Planned Parenthood attorneys originally filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi Secretary of State in July, seeking to prevent Mississippi citizens from voting on the Mississippi Personhood Amendment. After their court loss, ACLU and Planned Parenthood appealed the decision to the State Supreme Court.
“Just as this Court cannot prohibit legislators from offering proposals in the House or Senate, this Court cannot impede voters from submitting proposals through the voter initiative process,” the Court said in its decision.
“We believed that the Court would uphold the rights of Mississippi voters, and we are thankful that they have done so,” says Keith Mason, President of Personhood USA. “Mississippians volunteered thousands of hours of their time to ensure that voters would have the right to vote on this prolife amendment, and their voices should be heard. Amendment 26 sends a prolife message to the rest of the United States—babies in the womb are people, and have the right to live.”
