Judge: ‘Personhood’ abortion petition too general for November ballot
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Las Vegas Sun: A district judge ruled today that the "personhood" petition, which sought to override Nevada's abortion laws, not be circulated or placed on the November ballot because it's "too general in nature."
District Judge James Russell ruled that the initiative's language was too general and the voters would not understand the impact. "There is no way anybody can really understand the effect," the judge said after 75 minutes of arguments.
The initiative sought to amend the state constitution by defining a person and extending due process rights to "everyone possessing a human genome" from before birth to death. "In the great state of Nevada, the term 'person' applies to every human being," the initiative states.
Olaf Vancura of Personhood Nevada, which is pushing the abortion amendment, said the ruling by Russell would be appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court. Personhood Nevada sought to gather 97,200 signatures of voters to place the question on the ballot. Lee Rowland, an attorney for the ACLU, told the judge the proposed amendment is too vague and does not contain the words "abortion" "birth control" or "fertilization." If enacted, she argued it would change thousands of laws in Nevada.
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