OKLAHOMA CITY, April 4, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A plaintiff in a new lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s upcoming personhood ballot initiative has said that such an amendment, by outlawing the choice to kill children in the womb, would “cheapen” the “enormity of motherhood.”
Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights related in an email to supporters Wednesday the words of plaintiff Heather Hall, who with five other Oklahoma citizens joined the suit launched by the prominent pro-abortion group last Thursday in the state Supreme Court.
Hall described how she considered aborting her child after she learned of own mother’s death. Although ultimately opting against abortion, Hall testified that merely knowing she could legally escape the stress of carrying her child at that time “saved my sanity.”
“I chose both of my children, and taking that choice away only cheapens the risks, the pain, the enormity of motherhood,” said Hall, according to CRR.
“We agree,” Northup added in the email.
“Make no mistake—this initiative seriously threatens the rights, life, and health of all Oklahoma women. It’s a violation of our constitutional rights, and we will fight with all our might to make sure it never gets on the ballot.”
The ballot initiative in question would enshrine in the state constitution the personhood of human beings from the moment of conception. Backers of the initiative will need to collect 155,000 signatures in support of the amendment by the end of May to secure a place on the November ballot.
Keith Mason, president of Personhood USA, said the lawsuit was not a surprise, according to NewsOK.com.
“The opponents of personhood will stop at nothing to deny the people of Oklahoma their First Amendment right to petition the government on behalf of the preborn and ultimately recognize the most basic and fundamental human rights of the smallest and most defenseless people group,” Mason said.