A Michigan pro-life organization hopes to collect enough signatures by the November election to define a person as created from the moment of conception.
The Lapeer-based Michigan Citizens for Life is petitioning to change the state amendment by defining a person in order to expand legal rights for an unborn child from conception onward.
"We are protecting children by ending the fatal discrimination against them," said Cal Zastrow, the organization's chairman. "In our society, until you are born, some people don't recognize you as a person."
Many volunteers from the 2004 Marriage Amendment, which defines marriage as the union between a man and woman, are participating in the petitioning, which started Jan. 22, Zastrow said.
The organization needs to collect 317,757 signatures from registered voters by July 10. But Zastrow said he won't be happy until it reaches 400,000 signatures.
The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, plans on filing a lawsuit against the organization if it does pass, said Michigan ACLU Executive Director Kary Moss.
The 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case established that laws against abortion violate a constitutional right and overturned state laws that outlaw or restrict abortion.
"It blatantly is unconstitutional because of Roe v. Wade," Moss said. "Federal law trumps state law."
Planned Parenthood of Michigan has monitored the petitioning since December, when the ballot language was approved.
"They don't have some of the largest anti-choice groups on board with them, … Right to Life of Michigan or the Catholic Conference … the groups that (typically) spearhead this type of initiative," said Sarah Scranton, spokesperson and executive director of Planned Parenthood of Michigan.
Vague ballot language and money are reasons Right to Life of Michigan is not getting involved, David Malone, Right to Life of Michigan education coordinator, said.
The Michigan Citizens for Life term "personhood" is unclear in defining other types of conception like in vitro fertilization, Malone said. The initiative could cost upward of millions of dollars, and his organization can't spend money like that, he added.
The Michigan Citizens for Life ballot-initiative amendment won't have an impact on stopping abortion, Malone said. Any law that bans abortion will not go into effect until the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is overturned, he said.
