{"id":241075,"date":"2021-03-02T11:40:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T17:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=241075"},"modified":"2021-03-01T21:32:09","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T03:32:09","slug":"montana-bill-state-constitution-personhood-fertilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/montana-bill-state-constitution-personhood-fertilization\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana bill would amend state constitution to say personhood begins at fertilization"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Montana House Judiciary Committee has advanced a bill that would allow Montana voters to decide if the state constitution should be amended to say that “personhood” begins at fertilization.<\/p>\n

House Bill 337<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Caleb Hinkle (R), defines “personhood” as “all members of mankind at any stage of development, beginning at the stage of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning or condition of dependency.” If passed, it would put the measure before voters in November 2022.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Daily Montanan<\/a>, Hinkle said during his opening comments that his legislation was guided by life and liberty, with life coming first “because without life there is no liberty.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Four pro-life bills pass Montana Senate, one step closer to becoming law<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Granting personhood to preborn human beings would give them the right to life, essentially criminalizing abortion in the state. Laurel Hesse of the Montana American Civil Liberties Union said that the bill would violate Montana’s constitutional right to privacy \u2014 the right that opened the door to legalizing abortion in the United States in the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade<\/em>. However, proponents of the bill shared personal stories about abortion and stated that science proves a person is a person from the moment she or he is created \u2014\u00a0at fertilization.<\/p>\n