The organizers behind a Colorado pro-life initiative scheduled for the November election today filed a lawsuit against the state over "lies" about the measure in the official voter manual.
The manual, or Blue Book, is prepared before each election by the Colorado Legislative Council and is intended, according to the state agency's website, "to provide voters with the text, title, and a fair and impartial analysis."
However, sponsors behind the state's Amendment 62, the only "personhood proposal" on any election ballot in the nation this year, say it is anything but fair and impartial.
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"As soon as we saw the text online, we knew we had to do something to stop these lies from going out to Colorado voters," said Gualberto Garcia-Jones, co-sponsor of Amendment 62. "First, we were disallowed from including the text of the amendment in the 'Arguments For' section. The 'Arguments For' section is weak and does not include most of the arguments for Amendment 62. The Blue Book authors didn't stop there, however, and published several falsehoods about Amendment 62. Women could never be denied health care for miscarriages with the passage of Amendment 62, yet that is one of the lies our opposition is using as a scare tactic – and one of the lies propagated by the Colorado Blue Book."
The "personhood" movement takes aim at the foundation of the
1973 Roe v. Wade decision in which the Supreme Court created the "right"
to an abortion. It is based on Justice Harry Blackmun's statement in his
majority Roe v. Wade opinion that the landmark case would
collapse if "the fetus is a person," because the unborn's "right to life
would then be guaranteed" by the Constitution.
Personhood efforts simply call on voters to define an unborn child as a person from the moment of conception.
Amendment 62 sponsors and organizers say they attempted several times to change the text, in writing and at the public hearing, yet none of their objections were recognized.
Officials with the Legislative Council told WND they had not seen the allegations and had no comment. Colorado Right to Life is a plaintiff in the case.
But Keith Mason, whose work at Personhood USA has been integral to the state's Amendment 62 campaign, told WND, "Not only is Planned Parenthood using our tax dollars to kill children, they're using our tax dollars through this Blue Book process to get their talking points into the hands of every voter in the state of Colorado. That is just wrong."
Keith Mason |
Officials for the Amendment 62 campaign said their case seeks an immediate injunction, because the books already are in the process of being printed and mailed.
Mason said the pro-abortion activists have found a way to use the authoritative position of the state's "analysis" to "promote falsehoods and out-and-out lies."
Amendment 62 sponsors reported they even "provided letters … from embryology experts and cell biologists, one of whom said that the statement proposed for the Blue Book was 'political, not scientific,' and went on to explain the scientific fallacies of the proposed … statements, yet the expert statements were disregarded."
"We made several attempts in writing and in person to correct the fabrications in the Blue Book, yet we were largely ignored by the Colorado Legislative Council," said Leslie Hanks, co-sponsor of Amendment 62. "Now, our only choice is legal action to keep the state from using our own tax dollars to send lies about Amendment 62 to voters. From recent news articles, we gather that we are not the only group to see the clear bias – mostly against conservative issues – in this year's Blue Book. We are only asking for fair and impartial treatment from the governing officials, regardless of their personal feelings."
According to a recent report in the Denver Post, the fights over language describing three other ballot measures – all cutting taxes – also has been "especially nasty."
The report documented how supporters of those campaigns "have complained there is an unprecedented bias against them by staff of the Legislative Council."
Amendment 61 would require local governments to get voter approval to borrow, require debt to be repaid within 10 years and prohibit borrowing by the state. Amendment 60 would cut mill levies and allow voters to roll back previous votes to let government keep more money. Proposition 101 gradually would cut the state income tax from 4.63 percent to 3.5 percent and reduce vehicle-registration fees, which several years ago rocketed upwards, sometimes by several hundred percent.
Another ballot plan also would exempt Coloradans from President Obama's "mandate" that every person be forced to buy health insurance.
The "personhood" effort has faced intense opposition from abortion interests who fear their revenue stream would dry up instantly.
The issue also is on the radar screen already in many other states.