North Dakota to recognize ‘personhood’ of fetus

Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:02 am

North Dakota has become the first US state to move towards passing a law that defines ‘personhood’ as starting at the moment of conception, which would effectively outlaw abortion, pro-life groups have said.

Lawmakers in the North Dakota lower house voted 51 to 41 on Tuesday (February 17) to pass the Personhood of Children Act, which confers the same basic rights on “all human beings from the beginning of their biological development, including the pre-born, partially born.”

“This is the first state legislature that has actually acted in a positive way” on a personhood law, Judie Brown, president of the American Life League (ALL) said.

“As of today there are 19 states that have laws proposed, but no other state has got this far,” she said.

Voters in Colorado rejected by three-to-one a personhood amendment to their state constitution in a referendum in November.

The North Dakota bill is expected to go before the state senate in around two weeks.

If passed, it would be used to challenge the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe versus Wade decision, which legalised abortion in the United States and gave the country some of the least restrictive abortion laws in the world, experts said.

(With inputs from Agencies)

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

North Dakota to recognize ‘personhood’ of fetus

From World:

Todays news from World News

Advertisement

Email Subscription

Advertisement