YES ON 26 CELEBRATES VICTORY AT MISSISSIPPI SUPREME COURT
Our State’s High Court Allows Personhood to Remain on the November 8 Ballot
The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled today that Measure No. 26, the Personhood Amendment,
did not violate the state constitutional rules governing citizen initiatives, and so the citizens of Mississippi will have the
chance to vote on it in November. The Court thus rejected a challenge by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Center for
Reproductive Rights to keep the Personhood Amendment off the ballot, claiming that it was an improper attempt to modify
the Bill of Rights.
For over two years, scores of men and women, sons and daughters across our fair state patiently and prayerfully labored to
successfully bring forth the Mississippi Personhood Amendment, Measure No. 26, to its rightful place on the November 8,
2011, general election ballot. With over 106,000 certified signatures, the first hurdle to secure a constitutionally defensible
means of protecting the unborn from the earliest stages of life was achieved.
Recognizing the grave threat a favorable Mississippi vote in November posed to the interstate abortion trade, ACLU and
Planned Parenthood imposed a second hurdle, by filing suit to strip this initiative off the ballot, and as a result, deny
Mississippians their right to declare on November 8 that in Mississippi, under God, the unborn are persons, possessed of
those “unalienable rights” to life as our Founders opined in the Declaration of Independence. Thankfully, the Hinds County
Circuit Court and now our Supreme Court rejected the arguments of these bastions of liberal, anti-Christian activism and
affirmed the right of Mississippians to cast a vote for life — to say “yes” on 26 on Election Day. We applaud the Court’s
common sense and correct ruling.
“With the first two hurdles overcome, only the third hurdle of Election Day remains for us to claim victory in our state’s
personhood movement. We need Mississippi’s prolife public officials, pastors, and patriots to stand up and be counted in
the days ahead as we seek to become the first state in the nation to grant civil rights to the unborn,” said Brad Prewitt,
Executive Director of Yes on 26.
“There have been nationwide attempts to silence the personhood message, so we are very pleased that a high court has ruled
against the ACLU and Planned Parenthood yet again. The nation is watching Amendment 26, and it is time now to move
forward and pass this crucial prolife amendment to defend human life,” said Keith Mason, President of Personhood USA.
“Today we rejoice and celebrate this hard-won victory, but tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and return to work. Our
opponents are discouraged, but not yet ultimately defeated. They will be back, spreading fear, confusion, and dire “sky-isfalling”
warnings about this simple Amendment, and we must be ready to rebut their baseless charges and set the record
straight,” said Stephen Crampton, Liberty Counsel’s lead attorney for Personhood Mississippi in the case.
When passed, the Mississippi Personhood Amendment will recognize what science and medicine have long established —
namely that every human being is fully human and fully alive from the moment of fertilization — and will grant the unborn
the full and equal protection of the law as the rest of us possess. In the days ahead, we pray that our work to protect the
unborn might be successful and that our State of Mississippi might take that first step nationwide to stop abortion and to
choose life over death.
Yes on 26 Press Release
9/8/11
Magnolia Tribune
