Wisconsin Personhood Amendment: Front page news, along with Ryan Braun

Need I say more about the watershed moments of both Braun's achievement and the introduction of personhood legislation...

Today's Wisconsin State Journal:

Many Wisconsin abortion foes are cheering the introduction of legislation that would amend the state constitution to extend personhood to the moment an egg is fertilized, although the state's two largest anti-abortion groups are at odds over the approach.

The legislation is patterned after a similar measure that Mississippi voters rejected earlier this month.

Critics say such measures would outlaw all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest, and ban all forms of hormonal contraception, including birth control pills and intrauterine devices (IUDs).

Wisconsin's "personhood" amendment, introduced last week by Rep. Andre Jacque, R-Bellevue, would define the terms "people" and "person" in the constitution to include "every human being at any stage of development."

Matt Sande, lobbyist for Pro-Life Wisconsin, which backs the legislation and is working closely with Jacque, said the amendment "undoubtedly" would outlaw all forms of surgical and chemical abortion. On other issues, "we don't know exactly what it would mean, but our intent is to protect the preborn child at any stage of development from any violent attack, whether chemical, surgical or experimental," he said.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has concluded the proposed language would ban hormonal contraception, said Nicole Safar, public policy director. "This is way out of touch with Wisconsin values," she said.

In a twist, Wisconsin Right to Life, the largest anti-abortion group in the state, has come out forcefully against the personhood amendment strategy, calling it "just plain wrong for Wisconsin."

Read the rest here.

Telling how PPWI acknowledges the abortion-causing effect of hormonal contraceptives, no? And yet certain pro-lifers refuse to address the issue. Cardinal Burke has something to say about that.

Wisconsin Personhood Amendment introduced

Legislation that would amend the Wisconsin Constitution to apply personhood rights to preborn children at all stages of development was introduced on Thursday. Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR) 77, authored by Representative Andre Jacque (R-Green Bay), extends the inalienable right to life found in the Wisconsin Constitution to all preborn children from the beginning of their lives. Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) is the lead author in the State Senate. An amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution requires passage in two successive legislatures followed by a simple majority vote of the people. Click here to read the amendment language, and click here to view PLW's legislative memo. Click here for a national story on the opposition’s reaction.

From a pro-life perspective, the Wisconsin Constitution contains a glaring error at its outset. In specifying the beneficiaries of its human rights, our state constitution leaves out the preborn. It applies rights to only those people who are "born." Representative Jacque is proposing a minimal but absolutely essential correction, a personhood amendment, to make the Wisconsin Constitution cover all people, every person, at any stage of development.

Assembly Joint Resolution 77 tracks the original constitutional language as closely as grammatically possible, only substituting the inclusive personhood definition for the word "born." That definition is as follows: As applied to the right to life, the terms "people" and "person” shall apply to every human being at any stage of development. Such a definition is indispensable to spreading the protective cover of Wisconsin’s constitution over all its citizens.

The amendment language reads as follows:

Article 1. Declaration of Rights. Equality; inherent rights. SECTION 1. All people are equally free and independet, and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. As applied to the right to life, the terms "people" and "person" shall apply to every human being at any stage of development.

Should Roe v. Wade be overturned someday and the abortion issue remanded to the states, an activist Wisconsin Supreme Court could (and very likely would) use the word “born” in our current state constitution to deny the right to life of the preborn by interpreting an independent right to abortion in that document. In so doing, the court could nullify any present or future pro-life laws in our state. The changing makeup of the Wisconsin Legislature could also jeopardize any pro-life laws in our state. Every two years our state election process determines the majority party in Madison. Legal protection of the preborn should not (and must not) be contingent upon which party controls the state legislature. The right to life should not be subject to the whims of a politicized supreme court or an ever-changing legislature. Only by enshrining the right to life in our state constitution will preborn children be afforded full and lasting legal protection. 

The introduction of the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment is a watershed moment in the history of the pro-life movement in our state. It seeks to end abortion in Wisconsin, not to regulate or restrict it. It seeks to end all violence toward preborn children in Wisconsin – surgical, chemical, experimental, etc. – at all stages of development. We have been working toward the introduction of such an amendment for the last five years, and we thank Representative Jacque for demonstrating the courage of his convictions in finally making it a reality.

We also thank the co-sponsors of the bill for their principled stand in supporting the amendment: Senator Grothman and Representatives Dan LeMahieu, Don Pridemore, David Craig, Jeremy Thiesfeldt, Evan Wynn, and Tom Larson.

The Wisconsin Personhood Amendment is not intended, or worded, as a challenge to Roe, or as an attempt to define personhood under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. It seeks only to bring into the Wisconsin Constitution a true definition of human life as endorsed by Wisconsin citizens speaking through the amendment process, thus making the highest law in our state cover all people, every person, at any stage of development. We recognize that its protections cannot be fully effective as long as Roe remains law, but we believe a proper definition of personhood should be in place should Wisconsin be freed from the effects of that noxious decision.

The Wisconsin Personhood Amendment has been endorsed by Wisconsin Family Action, Personhood USA, Pastor Walter Hoye of the Issues4Life Foundation, American Life League, and Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Notre Dame. For more information on the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment, check out www.personhoodwisconsin.com.

Take Action!

Please CALL or EMAIL your state representative and state senator now and urge him or her to support AJR 77, the “Wisconsin Personhood Amendment.” 

Tell your legislators to extend the inalienable right to life found in the Wisconsin Constitution to all preborn children at all stages of development.

If your legislator is a co-sponsor of AJR 77, please thank him!

To find out who your state legislators are, click here for PLW's website and scroll over the Legislative Affairs menu item at the top of the page. A drop down menu will appear. Click on the Speak Up icon and then scroll down the page and click on Who Are My Wisconsin Lawmakers? Type in your street address, city and zip code. The names and contact information of your state senator and state representative will appear.

Once you know who your state legislators are, go back to the Speak Up page and use the links listed under Email Your Government Officials to send your email to your state senator and state representative. That way PLW will receive a copy of your email which will enable us to monitor the activity of our grassroots advocacy campaigns.

If you prefer to leave a telephone message with your state legislator, call the toll-free State Legislative Hotline at (800) 362-9472. Or call the legislator’s office directly. Thank you!

Pro-Life Wisconsin