NBC News 13: Montana Personhood Deadline Looms

Montana's NBC News 13 reports: A pro-life group wants to give Montana voters the chance to define what a person is. It's part of a proposed initiative to define a person at the moment of conception.

Diane Rotering wants to get people talking about abortion. So she's part of an an organization backing the initiative that would define a human life. She says "The definition of the word person is what's at stake now. And the voters have never had a vote. That's what the goal is, to define person and the people get to have a vote on that, whether that fetus is a person or not."

Beth Cogswell works for Planned Parenthood. She worries what would happen if this gets passed and abortion is ultimately overturned. She says "We know that in countries where abortion is not safe and legal that the death rate from illegal abortions is extremely high and I guess I would say do we want to be that kind of society that punishes women for making a choice?"

The idea behind the initiative is to get something on Montana's law books. Diane points out abortion isn't written anywhere in the initiative, but it would give the legislature a definition to work with to make laws regarding abortion. She says "To include every human being from the beginning of that human beings biological development. And you noticed the attorney general left the words human being in there. Very important that we know and recognize that the person in the womb is a human being."

Cogswell says "I don't think Montana supporters would support it if it does get on the ballot. I do believe that Montanans do value their privacy and that the government shouldn't interfere in private medical decisions."

Rotering says this is an issue the voters need to have a choice on. Organizers have to get ten percent or just over 48,000 of Montana's registered voters to sign by June 18th to get the initiative on the ballot.

And see previous news about the Montana personhood bill here!