Initiative 26

Initiative 26 would define personhood as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof."

As we speak (or as I type) the state of Mississippi is voting on passing the above initiative to redefine person hood in the States constitution.

The reason this particular initiative is so scary is that it legitimizes the idea that women are not people. The tactic of extending legal protection to embryos at the instant of conception isn't new and Mississippi isn't the only state where the concept has gone to ballot.

The Atlantic reports that this initiative doesn't only outlaw abortion but would ban several types of birth control in a state that already has the poorest and least educated population as well.

Roberto Garcia-Jones, a legal analyst for the measure's main sponsor, Personhood USA, claims that the amendment won't go as far as its opponents say it does. He says that the bill only defines "personhood" within the context of existing laws and doesn't contain any call for enforcement or changes to existing laws. According to Garcia-Jones, the ballot initiative would allow Mississippi's legislature to make laws against abortion that carry penalties -- laws that he believes would pass quickly. The Mississippi legislature will pass "abortion-targeted legislation," he predicts, and leave birth control formally alone.

Mississippi voters today are casting ballots for and against Constitutional Initiative 26, the so-called "personhood" amendment to the state constitution seeking to define life "to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof." Opponents of the measure warn it would outlaw not only abortion but several forms of birth control, plunging one of America's poorest and least-educated states back into the 1950s on the reproductive rights front and opening a pathway for other states to completely outlaw abortion. A close vote is expected and controversy over the measure has reached such a pitch in the state that Mississippi governor Haley Barbour said that "despite concerns" he'd cast an absentee ballot in favor of the measure last Thursday.

Mississippi has only one operating abortion clinic in the state. The Center for Reproductive Rights has pledged to file suit against the amendment. The organization notes that it "clearly violates the constitution."

The country already is moving toward a nation that doesn't support women reproductive health but the ramifications of stripping funding and passing legislation that restricts reproductive health is dangerous to the overall health of women too.

Mississippi wants to move backwards and it wants to do it now. The trends are scary and the elections of 2012 are rapidly approaching. The anti-choice movement seeks to slowly erode the reproductive rights that women fought so hard for. The victories sought by the anti-choice is simply dehumanizing women and banning any freedom we have to control our on reproductive rights.