Personhood Mississippi, an anti-choice, anti-contraception organization committed to outlawing abortion under any circumstances, submitted over 130,000 (105,000 of them valid) signatures calling for a 2011 ballot initiative asking voters to define life as beginning at "the moment of fertilization." Mississippi Personhood Amendment sponsor Les Riley calls this amendment a mission from God; I call it willful endangerment of Mississippi women and families.

Enacting a law that states life begins at the moment of egg fertilization renders several methods of contraception (such as the modern IUDs) illegal. Oral contraceptives would also face controversy, as many fetal personhood advocates claim that birth control pills are abortifacients despite bountiful medical evidence proving otherwise.

Take note: a Fetal Personhood Initiative doesn't merely affect women with unplanned pregnancies. These sorts of bills significantly curtail the rights of all pregnant women and families in myriad circumstances. Many women on both sides of the abortion debate are passionate about their ability to make medical decisions regarding their child/bodies at any stage of pregnancy. Sarah Palin's last pregnancy is indicative of this: she continued with state affairs after her water broke, and waited 11 hours (some of that on an airplane flight back to Alaska) to seek medical care. Sadly, women (without a governorship) have lost the right to make decisions about their children and methods of childbirth for far more pedestrian behavior.

 If a Personhood initiative passes in Mississippi, the will of the courts will trump a pregnant woman's wishes should her doctors or family disagree with her judgment.  This is not merely a matter of protecting the legality of abortion. It's a matter of every woman's right to plan her family as she sees fit, give birth under her own terms, preserve the integrity of her body (or even her life), and retain her moral agency.

See also

National Advocates for Pregnant Women

Planned Parenthood of Alabama and Mississippi