Mississippi voters face three ballot initiatives in Tuesday’s election, with the most controversial and hotly-contested being Initiative 26, also known as the “Personhood Initiative.”
Earlier in the week, Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, told Fox News and MSNBC that he was not certain if he would vote for the measure, which asks whether the term “person” should be defined to include “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof.”
However, Friday Barbour said he had voted for the initiative via absentee ballot.
Barbour initially expressed concerns about the measure, saying while he believes “life begins at conception,” he felt the language of the amendment was “profoundly ambiguous” and could be detrimental to the reproductive rights and health of women.
Supporters of the measure say it will grant full legal protection to fertilized eggs, making things like abortion, human cloning and embryo stem-cell research illegal and setting up a potential legal challenge for the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion in 1973.
Opponents say it could have widespread implications for women’s health as well as for families, outlawing the “morning-after” pill and other forms of birth control that destroy fertilized eggs, and complicating or outlawing in vitro fertilization as a way for infertile couples to have a child.
Supporters also say it could make adoption a more viable option for mothers, but opponents argue that the initiative’s wording does not offer any exceptions for women who are impregnated as a result of rape or incest.
Another measure that has drawn controversy is Initiative 27, which asks whether the state constitution should be amended to require people to show government-issued identification in order to vote.
Barbour is in favor of the initiative, while both gubernatorial candidates, Republican Phil Bryant and Democrat Johnny Dupree, oppose it.
Supporters say having to present photo identification will cut down on voter fraud, but opponents say most voter fraud is committed via absentee ballots, a problem which will not be resolved by voter identification at the polls.
Only 14 states currently require photo identification in order to vote, and 16 additional states require an alternate proof of identity.
Supporters say most people today have photo identification and are accustomed to having to show it on an almost daily basis and it may help increase voter participation by giving voters more confidence in the integrity of the process.
However, the measure has received sharp criticism from the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and civil rights activists, who argue that it would be a return to darker days in Mississippi’s voting history, when poll taxes and Jim Crow laws were used to keep blacks — and poor whites — from voting.
The initiative, if passed, is expected to carry a $1.5 million fiscal impact, because the Department of Public Safety, which currently charges for photo identification, would have to offer it free of charge.
The final ballot initiative asks voters whether the government should be prohibited from taking private property by eminent domain and transferring it to other persons.
Supporters of the initiative include the Mississippi Farm Bureau Administration, which says voting “yes” to the initiative would prevent the government from seizing private property for public use.
But opponents, including the Mississippi Development Authority, say the initiative could end up stifling economic development at a time when the state needs jobs and needs to be able to lure industry to Mississippi.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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