Abortion Foes' New Strategy: Personhood for Embryos

Tired of waiting for a more right-leaning court to revisit Roe v. Wade, opponents of abortion in several states are adopting a new strategy: constitutional amendments to grant human status to embryos. The LA Times reports on a grass-roots movement to put referendums on state ballots: It faces considerable obstacles but has pro-choice advocates nervous.

Unsupported by larger pro-life organizations, local Colorado activists have gathered enough signatures to ask voters whether the state constitution should afford "any human being from the moment of fertilization" the status of personhood. A court challenge to the referendum has failed; voters will decide in 2008. More prominent abortion foes are skeptical of the plans, but a spokeswoman for the Colorado initiative is unbowed: "We're not banning abortion. We're defining life." (More abortion stories.)