Personhood is a plan to amend each state constitution to define that a “person” with the right to life is any human being — from the unborn child at the beginning of biological development on through natural death.
To find out more about how to get involved with Personhood Florida, please go to www.PersonhoodFL.com. You can download printable petitions directly from the website.
Unlike other states, Florida has no ballot deadline for state constitutional amendment petitions. Although each signature expires four years after its signing, the Personhood Amendment signature drive is valid indefinitely — or until we have enough signatures to put it on the ballot. Unlike other states, such as Colorado or Mississippi, which require less than 100,000 signatures, Florida’s requirement is close to 700,000.
As one Florida state legislator said to me earlier this year, “Personhood is where we are going eventually. Why not get it started now?”
We are being realistic, yet optimistic, in saying that we have a big job ahead of us. We began in earnest less than a year ago and still have many battles ahead of us. We are pleased with the support and growing interest we are seeing right now especially with the Colorado vote in the news and the looming Mississippi vote in 2011.
Can Personhood actually work?
There is one important aspect of the Personhood Amendment most people don’t realize. In every state where this has been tried, even though it hasn’t passed yet, the opinion of the public has shifted dramatically toward the position of “pro-life with no exceptions.” For instance, the Republican candidate for Senator and two candidates for Governor in Colorado have endorsed Personhood. In fact, throughout the country, we have more candidates than ever before who are pro-life without exception. This is partially due to Personhood raising the standard.
The Republican Governor candidate in Mississippi has also endorsed Personhood and is pro-life with no exceptions.
So Personhood works, not just as a ballot initiative, but also as a way to make sure our candidates are truly pro-life. It works also as a way of educating and changing public opinion. In other words, even when we have lost, we have won support. In the end, we will need all three in order to make this a reality — education, voter initiatives and legislation.
In the meantime, wouldn’t you like to see something like the following happen in Florida?
In 2008, only a few candidates in Colorado endorsed Personhood. Here is the list of Colorado candidates who have endorsed Personhood (Amendment 62) in 2010. Tom Tancredo is the only Independent on the list, the rest are Republican candidates.
Colorado Candidates Support Personhood!
Ken Buck (U.S. Senate)
Dan Maes (Governor)
Tom Tancredo (Governor)
Cory Gardner (Congress)
Sue Sharkey (CU Regent)
Colorado State Senate Candidates
Greg Brophy (SD 1)
Kevin Grantham (SD 2)
Vera Ortegon (SD 3)
Wayne Wolf (SD 5)
Steve King (SD 7)
Kent Lambert (SD 9)
Scott Renfroe (SD 13)
Kevin Lundberg (SD 15)
Timothy Leonard (SD 16)
Mike Kopp (SD 22)
Tedd Harvey (SD 30)
Colorado State House candidates
Mark Barker (HD 17)
Libby Szabo (HD 27)
Jim Kerr (HD 28)
Kaarl Hoopes (HD 32)
Brian Vande Krol (HD 34)
Edgar Antillon (HD 35)
Kathleen Conti (HD 38)
Frank McNulty (HD 43)
Chirs Holbert (HD 44)
Steve Rodriguez (HD 46)
Glenn Vaad (HD 48)
BJ Nikkel (HD 49)
Ray Scott (HD 54)
Randy Baumgardner (HD 57)
Mark Rogers (HD 58)
John Becker (HD 63)
Jerry Sonnenberg (HD 65)
