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Personhood USA Regroups in Mississippi, Aims for Florida Vote

Submitted by Brian Tashman on December 6, 2011 - 12:40pm

The unexpectedly staggering defeat of the personhood amendment in Mississippi last month has not slowed down Personhood USA’s campaign to put stringent anti-choice laws on the ballot in states across the country. In fact, the group wants to put personhood laws back on the ballot in Colorado, where it was defeated twice, and even make a second attempt in Mississippi.

Personhood Mississippi head and Christian separatist Les Riley and Personhood USA’s Jennifer Mason told the Washington Times that activists are committed to passing the amendment in Mississippi:

“I can tell you that we are going to press forward. … We’ve got plans to continue a massive grass-roots campaign,” as well as work with the legislature, said Les Riley, leader of Personhood Mississippi.

“We realize we are changing a culture, and we can’t expect to change the culture with one election. That’s why we are willing to do this as many times as it takes,” said Jennifer Mason, spokeswoman for Personhood USA, which supports coast-to-coast measures seeking to establish human rights at conception.

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“We think that by including a little more information to prohibit our opposition from using these scare tactics will benefit us, while easing voters’ minds,” said Mrs. Mason, who is married to Personhood USA President Keith Mason.

Another state Personhood USA is targeting is Florida, where the state affiliate plans to gather signatures in support of a new Florida ProLife Personhood Amendment:

Have you heard the news? Personhood FL has launched a new prolife petition called the Florida ProLife Personhood Amendment. Personhood FL will collect petition signatures from registered Florida voters January 2012 – December 2013. We need your help to contact every church, every pastor in your county!

Because of a bill passed by the FL Legislature this year that changed the shelf life of the petition signatures from 4 years to 2 years, we are launching a new two year petitioning effort beginning January 2012. We have taken this opportunity to launch the new Florida ProLife Personhood Amendment based on language endorsed by Family Research Council and the American Family Association. The new petition language has been designed by a think tank of prolife personhood attorneys and satisfies 11 conditions needed to unite pro-life ministries. Adapting this language enables all states to come into unity anticipating and facilitating a federal prolife personhood amendment.

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Personhood Initiative Defeated, "Satan Wins"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on November 9, 2011 - 11:00am

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, who was elected as governor yesterday, also co-chaired “Yes on 26,” the campaign to pass a “Personhood” amendment in the state, and said on Election Day that the fight over Initiative 26 was “a battle of good and evil of Biblical proportions” and warned that “Satan wins” if the initiative fails. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, which heavily funded the “Yes on 26” effort, warned that the country would face God’s judgment if Initiative 26 lost and urged voters to “choose life lest the flickering flame of our liberty be extinguished forever.”

But the initiative did indeed fail, with a whopping 58% of Mississippi voters rejecting the extreme personhood law.

Along with Personhood USA and the American Family Association, Religious Right groups including the Family Research Council, Faith 2 Action and Liberty Counsel all backed Initiative 26.

Hours after the initiative was trounced at the polls, anti-choice activists are already blaming Planned Parenthood, the media, and Satan for the defeat.

Personhood USA’s Keith Ashley pledged to bring the personhood initiative back to the Mississippi ballot:

Personhood USA firmly believes that our campaign fell victim to the outright lies of our opposition, and because of their lies, children will continue to be murdered in Mississippi.

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We recognize that the right time to end abortion in Mississippi is now, and that is why the citizens of Mississippi will attempt a personhood ballot measure again—and again, if necessary—until every person’s life is protected.

Brad Prewitt, the executive director of “Yes on 26,” likened the personhood fight to the struggle against slavery, and Gualberto Garcia Jones of Personhood USA blamed the media and the “culture of death” for the defeat, in interviews with the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow:

"It's easy to look at things in a linear fashion, but we know that God's provision is not easily discernible by us in terms of his will -- and we have to await his will," he tells OneNewsNow. "And in the meantime, we have to be committed to biblical truth."

Meanwhile, Prewitt stresses the pro-life movement is not on life support in Mississippi. "There has been and there will continue to be a pro-life movement in Mississippi," he assures. "William Wilberforce started the anti-slave movement in England [in the late 1700s] and it was a 20-something year process. So if you have to start somewhere, I think it was a productive dialogue to have."

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A spokesman for Personhood USA say advocacy groups for personhood learned a lot from the campaign. "I think definitely the lies that were put out there by Planned Parenthood definitely took their toll on the people of Mississippi, and a lot of them believed them," says Gualberto Garcia Jones.

He laments that that misinformation converted to no votes on Election Day, even among pro-life residents.

"One of the things that was very telling to me was that the media, even in a conservative state such as Mississippi, was incredibly negative," Jones notes. "We had to battle uphill the whole time. They just carried the water for the opposition at every level.

"It's an indicator of how deep the culture of death has taken root of our nation.

Susan Tyrrell of Lou Engle’s Bound4Life wrote that it was a victory for “the kingdom of Satan”:

When push came to shove Tuesday night, Mississippians voted that the unborn could not be defined as people according to the proposed personhood amendment.

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The kingdom of Satan is united, which is why, for this season, it’s successful. Eventually the church will be united. At the end of the age we will be a powerful, praying church that stands for the only definition of justice that exists: the Jesus one. But right now we’re not there. I don’t want to be cynical. I know many wonderful praying people of all denominations who stand for LIFE and the word of God. We are advancing, but tonight, once again, we have let the kingdom of darkness advance ahead of us.

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Personhood USA Decries 'Paternalistic Government,' Calls For Conversions To Christianity

Submitted by Brian Tashman on November 7, 2011 - 10:25am

The director of Personhood USA writes in USA Today this morning that Mississippi voters should back his group’s far-reaching “personhood” law in order to put the brakes on big government and decries the fact that “the American people are being treated paternalistically by a government, media and public sector elite that stands in direct opposition to our traditional American values.” That’s right, the personhood law which would criminalize abortion, common forms of birth control, stem-cell research, in-vitro fertilization and the treatment of ectopic pregnancies, says Gualberto Garcia Jones, is actually a way to curtail the size of government because it seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade:

Increasingly, the American people are being treated paternalistically by a government, media and public sector elite that stands in direct opposition to our traditional American values. Using the courts as its instrument, this American elite has emasculated a once independent America.

The Constitution, a document written to prevent tyranny, has, as Thomas Jefferson predicted, become "a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please."

No greater example exists of this abuse of raw judicial power than Roe v. Wade, a decision by seven unelected men to impose abortion on all 50 states.

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This simple amendment has become ground zero in the fight over abortion because it challenges not only the legal foundation of Roe v. Wade— that the child in the womb is a non-person — but also the source of the power that has allowed the liberal elite to reshape America in its own image.

Les Riley, the extremist head of Personhood Mississippi, told OneNewsNow today that he hoped Mississippi’s personhood referendum, Initiative 26, would help lead people to convert to Christianity. Riley was previously a blogger for the Christian secessionist group Christian Exodus and is the Chairman of the far-right Mississippi Constitution Party, which seeks to “restore” government to its “Biblical presuppositions.” In the interview with OneNewsNow, the media arm of the American Family Association which backs Initiative 26, Riley said supporters should “pray not only for victory in the election, but that many people who are outside of Christ would be brought to him by our efforts -- even those opposing the amendment”:

Proposition 26, otherwise known as a personhood amendment, declares that a person is a human at the moment of fertilization. And as the vote approaches, Les Riley, the director of Personhood Mississippi who launched the Yes on 26 drive, is encouraging supporters to utilize a major weapon: prayer. He asks believers to request that God would glorify himself and work in a way that is far beyond "what we've even got the sense to ask for."

"We would just ask that God would work in a way that would astonish the whole world and that it would be clear that he was the one working and not us," Riley says. "And maybe, perhaps specifically pray not only for victory in the election, but that many people who are outside of Christ would be brought to him by our efforts -- even those opposing the amendment."

The pro-lifer goes on to note the significance of the amendment.

"You know this will be the first time in history that a state has recognized the humanity of the unborn and their God-given right to life," he points out. "It would make abortion illegal within our borders and would also challenge notions about abortion."

Since such a challenge would apply both nationally and internationally, he concludes that tomorrow vote is "hugely important."

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Mississippi Personhood Campaign Draws More Scrutiny, Questions

Submitted by Brian Tashman on October 31, 2011 - 10:05am

With few Mississippi politicians speaking out against a proposed “personhood” amendment on the state’s ballot next week, Personhood USA is hoping that the Magnolia State will be the first to adopt its radical anti-choice legislation, which has been resoundingly defeated multiple times in Colorado. Personhood USA’s Keith Mason said on Friday that Mississippi’s Initiative 26, “looks like it’ll be the first one to pass in this country.”

Mississippi already has some of the most restrictive anti-choice laws in the United States. But opponents of the personhood initiative have started succeeding in educating voters over the far-reaching consequences of the proposed law, which would not only criminalize abortions without exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother, but also potentially ban certain forms of birth control, the treatment of ectopic and problem pregnancies and in-vitro fertilization. One opponent of Initiative 26 said that polling shows that the more voters learn about the full impact of Initiative 26, the less likely they are to support it: “It’s the largest movement on numbers I’ve seen, in terms of the undecideds. It reverses the position…They’ve given us all the ammunition we need to defeat it.”

On Friday, Rachel Maddow discussed the grassroots campaign to defeat the personhood amendment and investigated the amendment’s radical roots – specifically, the role of Personhood Mississippi’s leader, Les Riley. As Maddow noted, Right Wing Watch first uncovered that Riley previously blogged for a secessionist group that wanted to create an independent theocratic state in South Carolina. In addition, Riley heads Mississippi’s far-right Constitution Party and is a past member of the neo-Confederate League of the South.

Maddow had as her guest Cristen Hemmins, who shared her story as a rape survivor who twenty years ago was kidnapped and raped by two men who shot her when she tried to flee. Hemmins told the Huffington Post that one of the bullets pierced her uterus, but if she had gotten pregnant and ifthe personhood law had been in effect at the time, she would have been prohibited by law from terminating the pregnancy.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Palin Schedules Next Speaking Engagement In Mississippi Because of AFA

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on October 18, 2011 - 9:31am

Earlier this month, Brian noted that Sarah Palin was scheduled to speak at an Extraordinary Women Conference held at Liberty University.

This weekend, Palin is scheduled to speak at another one of these conferences, which is being held in Tupelo, Mississippi ... and she has reportedly decided to speak at this event because of its proximity to the American Family Association:

Former Alaska governor and conservative Republican star Sarah Palin will anchor a lineup of female Christian speakers who will give their testimonies this weekend in Tupelo.

The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee will speak Saturday at 3 p.m. as the climax of the Extraordinary Women Conference at the BancorpSouth Arena.

Palin announced earlier this month that she would not seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, but her appeal among conservatives remains strong, and that's part of why she chose to make Tupelo one of only four stops on the Extraordinary Women tour at which she'll speak.

"We looked for markets where her appearance demographically made sense," said Michael Stewart, the conference's vice president for event development. Stewart also mentioned the presence of the American Family Association as a reason why Palin chose to speak in Tupelo.

The AFA is a certified anti-gay hate group and the employer of one of the Religious Right's most relentless bigots ... but it seems that for Palin, the AFA is a draw that is luring her to Mississippi.

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Huckabee Lauds Personhood Mississippi, Slams Avaricious "Abortion Industry"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on September 20, 2011 - 10:11am

Only a few years ago Religious Right groups and Republicans were running as far as possible away from the Personhood Colorado campaign, the effort to pass an extreme anti-choice measure that was twice handily defeated by Colorado voters. Last year, the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life, Colorado Citizens for Life all refused to back the Colorado personhood amendment, and the Colorado Eagle Forum called the personhood campaign a “disaster.”

But now, the Personhood Mississippi campaign –which is nearly identical to the Colorado effort – has received the support of prominent Republican leaders including Mike Huckabee and anti-choice groups such as the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and the Family Research Council.

The campaign to pass the personhood amendment, called Amendment 26, is led by the head of the extreme Mississippi Constitution Party and a member of Christian Exodus, which wanted to have states secede from the U.S. in order to form a new theocratic system of government. Designed to challenge Roe v. Wade, the amendment would criminalize abortion in all cases and also ban the treatment of ectopic pregnancies, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and certain forms of birth control.

Huckabee addressed a fundraiser for the personhood campaign and urged activists to give money because pro-choice activists only want to “make people rich” by keeping abortion legal. “This isn’t about elevating women,” Huckabee said, “this is about elevating wealth on behalf of those who profit from the sale of death.”

Watch:

But here’s what I don’t assume. I do not assume that you comprehend the battle you’re gonna face over the next couple of months in this fight for Amendment 26. You have no idea how many millions of dollars are likely to be poured into your state and it’s not stimulus money and economic development and job creation, it is hardcore political money that is designed to preserve the abortion industry which is a multimillion dollar industry specifically designed in order to terminate life and make people rich. Let’s not kid ourselves; this is not about elevating women this is about elevating wealth on behalf of those who profit from the sale of death.

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The reason that America is more pro-life than it ever has been is because the younger generation of Americans are more pro-life than their mothers and their grandmothers. And do you know why? Because science has affirmed what God has been trying to scream to us all along: that is a human life! Thank God for the science that’s affirmed it.

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Huckabee Is "Delighted To Stand" With Leader Of Anti-Gay Hate Group

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on September 8, 2011 - 9:31am

Earlier this year, Mike Huckabee appeared on Bryan Fischer's radio program where the two of them attacked President Obama's "fundamental anti-Americanism."

Shortly thereafter, Huckabee was a guest on Alan Colmes' radio program where he was asked about why he was associating with a vicious bigot such as Fischer, to which Huckabee responded by claiming that was not familiar with Fischer's long record of undeniable bigotry and that he was not responsible for things Fischer may have said.

Since then, it has become pretty clear that there is nothing that Fischer can say that might get anyone in the conservative movement to treat him as the pariah that he is, as leading conservative figures continue to appear on his radio program on a regular basis.

Huckabee himself has appeared on Fischer's show multiple times and did so again yesterday to discuss his upcoming appearance at a fundraiser for Personhood Mississippi and declared that he was "delighted to stand" with "courageous leaders" like the AFA's Don Wildmon in supporting this effort:

So this is just another reminder of the fact that seemingly nobody on the Religious Right finds Fischer's relentless bigotry in any way objectionable or unacceptable:

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Huckabee To Keynote Fundraiser For Personhood Mississippi

Submitted by Brian Tashman on August 31, 2011 - 11:40am

Mike Huckabee is scheduled to be the featured speaker at a fundraiser for Personhood Mississippi, the group running the campaign to pass Amendment 26, which would criminalize abortion with no exceptions by giving rights to zygotes. In addition to banning abortion, the personhood amendment would also make certain forms of birth control, in-vitro fertilization and the treatment of problem pregnancies a crime. The American Family Association, which is based in Mississippi, committed $100,000 to fund the effort to pass Amendment 26 in November.

By supporting Amendment 26, Huckabee places himself even to the right of the National Right to Life Committee, which refused to back Colorado’s failed personhood amendment because they thought it was counter-productive and likely to be struck down as unconstitutional.

Moreover, the founder and director of Personhood Mississippi is far-right extremist Les Riley. Riley used to be a featured blogger for the Christian separatist group Christian Exodus, until his posts were conspicuously removed from the group’s site. But luckily, he left a paper trail:

According to Christian Exodus’s mission statement, “The initial goal was to move thousands of Christian constitutionalists to South Carolina to accelerate the return to self-government based upon Christian principles at the local and State level. This project continues to this day, with the ultimate goal of forming an independent Christian nation that will survive after the decline and fall of the financially and morally bankrupt American empire.”

The group, which is closely tied to the neo-confederate League of the South, attempted to set up an independent, theocratic state in South Carolina by 2016 but has since moved on to creating theocratic settlements in Panama and Idaho.

Riley is also chairman of the Constitution Party of Mississippi and stated that its goal is to “restore American government to its Constiutional [sic] limits and American jurisprudence to its Biblical presuppositions.” According to their platform, “The U.S. Constitution established a Republic rooted in Biblical law.”

But for Huckabee, it seems no activist is too radical to work with.

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Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) Proposes Legislation “Identical” to Radical “Personhood” Amendment

Submitted by Brian Tashman on January 26, 2011 - 12:59pm

Right Wing Watch has been covering the extreme “personhood” movement, which after being overwhelmingly rejected by voters in Colorado, has emerged as a powerful force in Mississippi, where the amendment will be on the 2011 ballot. Now, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker is taking the “personhood” fight to the national level by introducing legislation in the Senate mirroring Mississippi’s personhood initiative.

The “personhood” movement seeks to give legal rights to zygotes and would effectively criminalize abortion, stem-cell research, common forms of birth control and even in vitro fertilization. The once-fringe “personhood” activists were initially renounced by Religious Right organizations as unrealistic and unhelpful to the anti-choice cause, but now groups like the American Family Association and Liberty Counsel along with leading Republican politicians have embraced the Mississippi Personhood campaign led by Les Riley, a radical activist who supports the separatist “Christian Exodus” movement.

Senator Wicker spoke to the AFA’s Director of Issue Analysis and resident bigot Bryan Fischer on Focal Point and pledged to introduce the “Life at Conception Act.” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) plans to introduce a companion bill in the House.

About two minutes in to the interview, Wicker tells Fischer that “a personhood amendment to the state constitution [will be] voted on very soon in my state, and I’m not the only one who’s seized on to this idea and of course it will be introduced in the House of Representatives also.”

Fischer replies, “In fact we have talked on this program frequently about the personhood amendment, and in fact I believe if I’m not mistaken Senator Wicker, the language in Mississippi’s personhood amendment and in your ‘Life at Conception Act’ are virtually identical in the key paragraphs.” Wicker backs up Fischer’s claim, saying, “That is certainly my understanding, yes sir.”

Watch:

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Personhood Movement Announces 50-State Strategy

Submitted by Brian Tashman on January 10, 2011 - 2:13pm

The anti-choice movement to use state ballot initiatives to give fetuses and embryos legal rights has announced a nationwide petition drive to bring their radical measure to all fifty states. Opponents of reproductive rights hope to use “personhood amendments” to criminalize abortion, stem-cell research, and common forms of birth control by giving zygotes constitutional protections. While the amendment failed miserably at the polls in Colorado, Personhood USA hopes to bring personhood amendments to states such as Florida, Mississippi, Montana, and Wisconsin, among others.

Personhood activists have their hopes set on Mississippi, where the amendment will be voted on in November. Personhood Mississippi is led by Les Riley, a member of an extreme separatist organization called Christian Exodus, and Riley’s campaign has received the support of notable Republicans like Congressman Alan Nunnelee and Lt. Governor and gubernatorial candidate Phil Bryant, and groups such as the American Family Association and Liberty Counsel.

Now, Personhood USA has launched petition drives in every single state. According to the group, they already have gathered over 900,000 signatures:

"Now in every state in America, prolife volunteers are engaging their communities with the truth of personhood, and are working to change the laws as citizens or lobbying the lawmakers in their state to do their job and protect every person by love and by law, " stated Keith Mason, cofounder of Personhood USA. "We are thrilled to have met our goal to be in all 50 states in just two years, and we are so thankful to be closing in on 1 million signatures defending the personhood of the preborn child."

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"Personhood USA functions as a support system, giving as little or as much help as needed, and we have truly been blessed by Jesus Christ as He is accomplishing so much through us in just the past two years. We can't wait to see what He does, in all 50 states, in 2011," added Cal Zastrow, cofounder of Personhood USA. "We will keep working hard for the rights of preborn children, knowing that this is the best chance we've ever had to end abortion in America."

Watch Les Riley explain to the AFA’s Director of Issue Analysis Bryan Fischer back in October about the Personhood movement’s plan to overturn abortion rights:

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