Colo., 'Personhood' Measure Fails To Qualify for Ballot; Colo., Wyo., Finalize Bills on Violence Against Pregnant Women

March 4, 2010 — The following summarizes recent action in Colorado and Wyoming related to a "personhood" initiative and bills addressing crimes against pregnant women.

~ Colorado: The Colorado secretary of state said on Wednesday that supporters of a proposed state constitutional amendment to define fertilized eggs as people failed to collect enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot, the AP/USA Today reports. Colorado voters rejected a similar "personhood" amendment in 2008. In other news, the state Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Wednesday rejected a bill (SB 113) that would have allowed criminal charges for causing the death of a fetus while committing another crime. Thirty-seven other states have adopted similar laws. Opponents of the measure said it is an attempt to lay the groundwork for an abortion ban. Kevin Paul, a representative for Planned Parenthood, told the committee that the bill could put the state and physicians at risk for legal action by classifying life as beginning before birth. He said the state already has laws that allow prosecutors to include crimes against a fetus if a pregnant woman is the victim of a violent crime. The AP/USA Today reports that the bill text excludes prosecution for abortions performed with the woman's consent (Paulson, AP/USA Today, 3/3). The bill states that the death of a fetus is not considered an offense if it "occurred during or following medical treatment, including but not limited to an abortion, in utero treatment or treatment resulting in live birth to a pregnant woman" (Bill text, 3/4).

~ Wyoming: The state Senate approved a bill (HB 132) Wednesday that would increase penalties for people convicted of second-degree murder, manslaughter and drug-induced homicide of a pregnant woman, the AP/MSNBC reports. The bill would raise the penalty for second-degree murder of a pregnant woman from the current range of 20 years to life in prison to 40 years to life in prison. Manslaughter convictions would increase from zero to 20 years to a mandatory minimum of 10 to 30 years in prison. The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Kathy Davison (R), whose pregnant daughter was shot and killed in 2009. It now heads to Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D), who said he is inclined to sign the bill into law. Representatives from Freudenthal's office coordinated with Davison on the bill to ensure that enhanced penalties would be applicable regardless of whether the fetus survives the crime. Suzan Pauling from the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault said her group supports the bill. Freudenthal in 2007 vetoed a bill by John Barrasso (R) -- then a state senator and now a U.S. senator -- that would have allowed people who knowingly kill a pregnant woman to be charged with two counts of murder. The measure was opposed by abortion-rights groups, despite claims from the bill's supporters that it was unrelated to abortion (Neary, AP/MSNBC, 3/4).