It wasn’t even close. AP has the votes. The amendment was not a serious attempt to do anything more than rally the troops, since it was medical nonsense to suggest that every fertilized (not even implanted!) embryo should have ‘personhood’ status. Even so, 42% of the voters (at last count) voted for it in this low-turnout off-year contest.
But if we’re going to put personhood on the ballot, how about putting corporate personhood on the ballot? That could be a fun debate.
And what is your take on corporate personhood? My uninformed impression is that it is much too convenient to do away with. At the same time, corporate persons seem to all but get away with murder because no corporate person ever faces jail time (ditto for their flesh-and-blood managers).
Consider first that many pro-life supporters both in Mississippi and around the country were against this amendment to the MS Constitution. Also consider that the “defeat” was not particularly resounding, except when compared, perhaps, to recent presidential squeakers.
The last thing that pro-lifers want is to FORCE the Supreme Court to rule definitively on a constitutional matter. The preference (and smart move) is to work through legislation. So it’s hardly surprising that such an extreme pro-life statement was defeated, nor that it was defeated with the help of pro-lifers (as it was).
If you are thinking that, put to an actual vote, a stricter stance on abortion would not prevail at the polls, I think you’d be very wrong. But there are proper ways to do it, and stupid ways. A Constitutional amendment just temps fate…