Abortion rights advocates study Nevada initiative

Abortion and civil rights advocates said Thursday that they are reviewing the description wording of a proposed initiative petition that seeks to define a person and override Nevada's abortion laws.

"We're monitoring this very closely," said Monica McCafferty, a regional spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Colorado, where voters defeated a similar measure last year.

The Nevada "personhood" initiative would amend the state constitution by defining a person and extend due process rights to "everyone possessing a human genome" from the beginning of biological development through end of life.

"This amendment codifies the inalienable right to life for everyone, young or old, healthy or ill, conscious or unconscious, born or unborn," the petition states.

Richard Ziser, a conservative activist in Las Vegas, filed the initiative Wednesday with the secretary of state's office. Any challenges to the petition's wording describing its effect must be filed by Nov. 12.

Ziser said his group is anticipating a challenge to be filed.

"Our language is pretty simple. There's not a whole lot to attack there," he said. "I think we'll sail through pretty smoothly with legal challenges in the works."

Ziser said besides protecting the unborn, defining a person would alleviate fears raised during the health care reform debate about end-of-life issues.

But Lee Rowland, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the petition could have unintended consequences.

"The ACLU of Nevada supports full and fair access to the initiative process, even when we vehemently disagree with an initiative issue," Rowland said. "And the personhood initiative is one whose intended and potentially unintended consequences are indeed policies we vehemently oppose."

Rowland said the measure "appears to increase" government intervention in end-of-life decisions, such as living wills.

"We wholeheartedly oppose government intervention into those critical private medical decisions," she said.

In 1990, voters passed a referendum protecting abortion rights in Nevada and prohibiting any changes to the law except by a direct vote of the people. Under existing law, doctors can perform abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and after that only to protect the life or health of the mother.

Ziser said a constitutional amendment would supersede statute. And while the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a woman's right to an abortion under the long-standing Roe v. Wade decision, he said there are also exceptions allowing states to impose their own restrictions.

"Nevadans are pretty strong states' rights kind of people," he said. "States should have the right to make that determination."

To qualify for the 2010 general election ballot, supporters would need to gather about 97,000 signatures. It would have to be approved by voters next year and in 2012 to be included in the constitution.