A newly-created anti-abortion group has announced a new tactic meant to end abortion access nationwide.
In the wake of major defeats for personhood ballot measures in Colorado and North Dakota’s recent elections, anti-abortion extremist Gualberto Garcia Jones, who authored Colorado’s failed Amendment 67, is now instructing groups to abandon statewide votes for personhood amendments. Instead, Garcia Jones suggested that in 2015 anti-choice groups start “engaging the enemy in municipalities and counties that we know we control.” The Personhood Alliance, which claims to have member organizations in at least 14 different states, is already receiving support for putting anti-choice ballot initiatives at the county and municipal level from other anti-choice groups.
“We know that winning in a head to head statewide battle with Planned Parenthood is almost impossible,” said Molly Smith, President of Cleveland Right to Life, “so we are going to change the rules of engagement a little.”
Voting at the local level, however, has not worked for passing abortion restrictions in the past. Cathy Alderman, Vice President of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, remembers when anti-choice groups failed to ban abortion at 20 weeks in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Voters upheld the value that women should be making their own health-care decisions in consultation with their doctor and their family and without government interference,” Alderman said.
Media Resources: Right Wing Watch 6/16/2014; Feminist Newswire 11/5/2014; Lifesite 11/7/2014; Personhood.org Press 10/29/2014; RH Reality Check 11/24/2014
