North Dakota anti-abortion amendment for state ballot clears senate

By Dave Thompson
BISMARCK, North Dakota | Thu Feb 7, 2013 6:50pm EST

(Reuters) - The North Dakota Senate on Thursday approved placing on the state ballot a constitutional amendment that declares that life begins at conception.

The state senate passed the measure 26 to 21. If the Republican-majority House goes along, as expected, it will be placed on the ballot for consideration by North Dakota voters in November 2014. Proponents seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

"This amendment is intended to present a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade," said state senator Margaret Sitte, a Bismarck Republican who is the bill's sponsor, referring to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. "By passage of this amendment, the people of North Dakota are asking government to recognize what science already defined."

A similar amendment was rejected by voters in Mississippi in 2011. Had it passed, Mississippi would have been the first U.S. state to define a fertilized egg as a legal person. Similar measures failed in Colorado in 2008 and 2010.

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