Mississippi to vote on anti-abortion "personhood" amendment

Though a similar proposal has already been rejected twice in Colorado, Mississippi is now trying out a "personhood amendment" of its own, which would legally define humans as existing beginning at fertilization. The amendment will be on the state's upcoming November ballot as Proposition 26, and though numerous state leaders have publicly declared support for the measure, it has also raised a series of technical questions. 

"Part of the concern is that it's not entirely clear what will happen if this passes," explained a local law professor. Aside from outlawing abortion even in the case of rape or incest, the measure would specifically define a person as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof," which could possibly lead to bans on certain birth-control methods and fertility treatments, as well as lower the legal voting age to seventeen years and three months after birth, per the state's new definition of life. 

Supporters of Proposition 26 assure skeptics that "most forms" of birth-control pills would remain legal, and call theories that women who miscarry could technically be prosecuted under the new law "silly and cruel."

However, according to Mother Jones, the founder of Personhood Mississippi (and Proposition 26's greatest proponent) is Les Riley, a man who once threw his political weight behind "an effort to form an independent theocratic republic in South Carolina." Um, well then. Safe to say all bets are off.