Bloomberg News  ’Personhood’ Laws Do Nothing to Resolve Abortion
Debate: View  November 16, 2011  Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) --
Mississippi residents will vote today on an amendment to the
state’s constitution that would define as a person “every human
being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the
functional equivalent thereof.”  According to polls, Amendment
26 enjoys broad support in the state and appears poised to pass.
Although a half-dozen states are considering their own
“personhood” amendments, we hope that even the most ardent pro-
life activists will pause before following Mississippi down this
legal dead end.  Amendment 26 is unlikely to produce change in
abortion law, even in Mississippi, which has only one clinic
that performs the procedure. Until the U.S. Supreme Court says
otherwise, Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, including
Mississippi. Roe may be famously dubious as law, having located
a right to abortion in a privacy right. But the decision has
proved durable precisely because it reflects