Fack.

Religious bible thumpers need to stop worrying what Dick and Jane are doing, and mind their own business. That, or they should be forced to adopt every kid that is born, but not wanted. As for Republicans, who supposedly want less government involvement, they sure are active about trying to tell people what they should think and do.

Abortion ban posed for Colo. '08 ballot

'A hearing about the measure's language is today. It would take 76,000 signatures to get the measure, which opponents call "extreme," on the ballot.

An anti-abortion group is working on an initiative that it hopes will eventually ban all abortions in Colorado.

The ballot, planned for November 2008, will ask voters to define human life as beginning at conception.

"If the state or the federal government ever defined when life began, then the rights of the unborn would be superior to the woman's right to have an abortion," said Mark Meuser of Colorado Equal Rights, who is pushing the constitutional amendment. "If personhood was ever defined, then the case for Roe would collapse."

A title board hearing to approve the measure's ballot language is scheduled for today. After a one-week window to appeal the language, the group will begin gathering the 76,000 signatures needed to place it on the ballot, Meuser said.

The abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood called the initiative "extreme."

"The proponents of this initiative have certainly been clear that their goal in Colorado is to make abortion illegal," said Lizzy Annison, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. "We believe that a woman's right to control her own fertility is a fundamental human right."

In Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that if "personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed."

Blackmun wrote the court's majority opinion.

Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said the measure is an "insidious" attempt to take Blackmun's words out of context.

"They are using this so-called legal strategy in order to invalidate a woman's right to privacy and a woman's right to choose," Hazouri said. "They are turning Justice Blackmun's offhand remark into something they think will change the U.S. Constitution, and they're wrong."

The proposed ballot language would state that "the terms 'person' or 'persons' shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization."

Kristine Burton, co-founder of Colorado Equal Rights, said the language is straightforward in order to avoid the legalese that complicates abortion debates.

"We wanted to be clear for the public," she said.

But John Straayer, a Colorado State University political science professor, said the amendment would be a "tough sell."

"The implications are so sweeping that it would cause the majority of voters to have some pause," he said.

In Colorado, there hasn't been a similar measure attempted, but previous abortion-limiting measures were defeated.

Meuser said there are "two state organizations with massive membership that are fully behind this" and that there will be "several more" on board as the initiative picks up steam.

He declined to release the backers' names at this time.

Focus on the Family officials said they will support the initiative if it makes it to the ballot.

There are similar measures taking shape in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokeswoman with the Colorado Springs- based group.

She added that amending the U.S. Constitution has been a goal of the pro-choice movement since 1973.

"The state efforts are just a different tactic to that strategy," she said. "It's a fresh and novel approach to the issue."'