Ohio 'Personhood' Supporters Short on Signatures for Proposed Amendment

June 25, 2012 — Personhood Ohio likely will fall short in its bid to place an amendment before voters this fall that would define life as beginning at fertilization, Slate's "The Slatest" reports.

With a July 4 deadline approaching, the group has only collected about 20,000 of the 385,000 signatures it would need for the measure to qualify for the November ballot (Hewitt, "The Slatest," Slate, 6/21).

Despite support from the national organization Personhood USA, which is based in Denver, the Ohio amendment failed to gain the backing of local antiabortion-rights groups, such as the Catholic Conference of Ohio and Ohio Right to Life.

Measures in Other States

Similar initiatives in Nevada and California also fell short of the required number of signatures this year.

However, personhood supporters believe they can meet the signature threshold in Montana and Colorado, which both have lower signature requirements than Ohio. Colorado voters rejected similar amendments in 2008 and 2010 (AP/Washington Post, 6/21).