Yesterday, Mississippians rejected (58-42) Proposition 26 that would have recognized fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses as separate legal persons under Mississippi law. Put another way, yesterday, 58% of Mississippians supported and reaffirmed the constitutional personhood of pregnant women.
We say this because Pregnancy Justice knows that so-called personhood measures, as well as more subtle but just as dangerous feticide laws and anti-abortion legislation, are all ultimately designed to deprive pregnant women of their status as full persons under the law.
Proposition 26 failed for numerous reasons. While the mainstream media is focusing on the influence national groups on both sides of this ballot fight had, in fact there was an amazing home-grown grassroots uprising of opposition to the measure. As Pregnancy Justice’s South-based attorney documented in her piece, Grassroots Opposition Grows to Mississippi’s Proposition 26, Mississippians themselves saw the danger in the measure and took action.
Your support of Pregnancy Justice helped too. Your support helped fund our South-based attorney who respectfully spoke with individuals and organizations across the state so that they would have the information they needed to build opposition within their own communities, schools, churches, and neighborhoods.
Your support of Pregnancy Justice made it possible for us to produce a video, explaining How Mississippi's Prop 26 Can Hurt ALL Pregnant Women. More than 15,000 people have watched this video, shared it through social networking sites, and used it as a tool in their own opposition campaigns.
The question now is: How do we build on this victory for women and families and for a newly energized and mobilized grassroots firmly planted in the state of Mississippi?
Pregnancy Justice is committed to continuing to work with the new leaders, organizations, and activists that have so much to celebrate today.
We are also committed to continuing our fight for Rennie Gibbs, the Mississippi teenager charged with murder for experiencing a stillbirth. A surprising--if not inexplicable--5-4 decision from the state Supreme Court last week held that this young mother must first go through the ordeal of a homicide trial before that Court will decide if the state’s existing homicide laws may be used to punish women who cannot guarantee healthy birth outcomes.
Finally, we know this vote does not put an end to efforts to recriminalize abortion and to establish precedent that legally separates fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses from the pregnant women who carry and sustain them. Pregnancy Justice is in it for the long haul: we will make sure that in Mississippi and throughout the United States our laws support a culture of life that includes the women who give that life.