(Image source: MSNBC)


BY MALLORY PERRYMAN



Does life begin at conception? Mississippi voters say-- no.

According to WLBT-- with 96 percent of precincts reporting-- 58 percent of voters said “no” to a proposed amendment that would define a fertilized egg as a person.

“Opponents of the personhood amendment gathered to celebrate as Mississippians voted down the proposal. Those voting yes on the initiative were aiming to stop abortions and set up a challenge to Roe v. Wade. Those opposing the measure say it would have been an overreach of the government into personal and private medical decisions.”

Colorado-based group Personhood USA was a driving force behind the proposal-- and the group plans to get similar measures on other state ballots in 2012.

But MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow wonders-- if the idea didn’t catch on in conservative Mississippi, can it catch on anywhere?

Rachel Maddow: “There are petitions being gathered and measures being proposed for so-called personhood initiatives like Mississippi’s to ban abortion and ban birth control and ban IVF and make your miscarriage subject for a criminal investigation- these things are being proposed all over the country now... The personhood, ban abortion and birth control folks must have figured if they could pass this thing anywhere in the country, they could probably pass it first in Mississippi.”

In fact-- a similar personhood proposal has already failed twice in Colorado. But Mississippi was different-- because leading up to Tuesday’s vote--

--media outlets reported voters were “narrowly divided”-- or in this story-- “split”-- on the issue.

CNN even reported...

“The initiative has been gaining support across many demographics, according to polls suggesting that it will probably pass.”

But it didn’t pass. An analyst on Fox News says-- that doesn’t mean pro-life advocates are losing ground in Mississippi-- rather--  it means the plan was poorly written.

“It was a terrible idea. It’s written in a very ambiguous way and it would have had the most perverse results...  It would have left all these decisions of interpretation up to the courts and the conservative idea is you don’t want the courts deciding.”

Personhood USA is trying to get the issue on ballots in Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada and California next year.