Would proposed amendment make birth control illegal in Florida?

Anti-abortion conservatives are proposing a new constitutional amendment that critics claim would make it a crime to take birth control pills in Florida.

The "Personhood Amendment" that conservative activists are filing today in Tallahassee would add language to the state constitution that defines someone as a "person," regardless of age or health status, "from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."

Pat McEwen of Palm Bay is one of two leaders of the loose collection of activists, collectively known as Personhood Florida.

"In the original Florida Constitution in 1885, they gave Floridians the right to enjoy and defend life," she said. "This amendment defends the unborn, and it also gives older people like me - a retired college professor - the right to make my own decisions and not have someone override it."

Personhood Florida will have to collect 676,811 petition signatures by Feb. 1 for its proposal to appear before voters as soon as 2010, though organizers can keep trying for a future ballot if they don't make that deadline. Signatures on petitions remain valid for four years.

On the group's side is the American Life League, a socially conservative Virginia-based organization that is supporting similar amendments in about two dozen states. The national group spent $250,000 on a campaign that put a similar question on Colorado's ballot in 2008. Voters rejected that measure roughly 3-1.

Though the wording of that proposal differs from the one pending in Florida, their meanings are similar. The 2008 proposal in Colorado defined human beings at "the moment of fertilization." The Florida amendment refers to "the beginning of the biological development," which McEwen defined in a Thursday interview to mean a fertilized egg.

That, opponents say, would make it a crime not just to kill a fetus by abortion, but also to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's uterus as birth control pills can.

"By their definition, anything that you might do to interfere with the implantation of a fertilized egg would be tantamount to murder," said Marc Farinella, a campaign consultant for Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, presumptive Democratic candidate for governor.

As described by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, birth control pills and intrauterine devices work partly by causing the lining of the uterus to thin, "making it less likely that a fertilized egg can attach to it."

McEwen said the primary purpose of a birth control pill is to prevent fertilization. Preventing the egg from implanting, she said, is "secondary" - and she's not convinced it even happens, arguing that not all research supports that finding.

Given that, she said, she's not convinced her proposed amendment would criminalize the pill. But she would support banning it, she said, if she were truly convinced it prevents implantation.

The American Life League has no such doubts. On its Web site, the league slams the pill for numerous reasons, including: "The pill will irritate the lining of the uterus so that the newly formed human being cannot attach to his/her mother's womb and dies. This is called a chemical abortion."

The group also operates thepillkills.com, a Web site that focuses on blood clots and other health risks that birth control pills pose to women.

Farinella, former chief of staff and campaign manager for the late Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri, said he got to know the American Life League during Carnahan's bid for U.S. Senate in 2000. Carnahan faced conservative incumbent John Ashcroft in that race prior to Carnahan's fatal airplane crash in October of that year.

"That race, from the time it started, was about these hot-button social issues," Farinella said, and the American Life League was aligned firmly with Ashcroft. He described the group as the "ringleader" of a national movement to outlaw birth control.

Katie Walker, spokeswoman for the American Life League, said Farinella is jumping to conclusions about the proposed amendment's impact.

"I have no idea what would happen if this were to pass," she said. Contraception is "not the scope of this amendment. This amendment is about civil rights - it's really a continuation of the civil rights movement. "

But Monica McCafferty, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said the potential for criminalizing birth control became part of the statewide debate over the Colorado amendment.

"Voters stated loudly that they didn't want this measure that had such far-reaching implications," she said.

With less than six months to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures, Personhood Florida faces a tight deadline for making the next ballot. Leaders of the Christian Coalition of Florida and Florida Family Policy Council did not return phone calls Thursday seeking comment about the amendment and whether they will campaign for it.

Such a ballot question could affect which voters turn out - though it's hard to say whether opponents or supporters would be more motivated, said Darryl Paulson, professor emeritus of government at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. "They're really playing with fire," he said. "It could just as easily turn out an equal or greater number of voters on the political left who staunchly oppose this."

It could also pose headaches for political candidates with nuanced abortion stances. On Thursday, even candidates who call themselves "pro-life" stopped short of fully embracing the "Personhood" proposal.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, presumptive Republican candidate for governor in 2010, said through spokeswoman Shannon Gravitte that he is firmly "pro-life" but would not comment "on hypothetical issues." If the proposal wins enough petition signatures, she said, "voters will certainly know where General McCollum stands."

In the U.S. Senate GOP primary, Gov. Charlie Crist said "no and no" when asked whether he knew of the proposal or would comment on it.

Crist's rival in the primary, Marco Rubio, said through spokesman Alex Burgos that he believes strongly that life begins at conception and that he opposes the decision in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case on abortion. But Rubio stopped short of endorsing the "Personhood Amendment." Rubio, Burgos said, "will be soliciting the views of different parties involved, to ensure he makes a well-informed decision."