Nevada abortion statute targeted

CARSON CITY -- A longtime conservative activist announced Wednesday he is launching a petition drive to overturn the state's abortion rights law and prevent government from trying to end the lives of elderly people.

Richard Ziser said his proposed Personhood Constitutional Amendment is designed to ensure that no human being is deprived of "life, liberty or property" from the moment of biological development to the natural end of his life.

The petition, if it secures the required number of signatures of registered voters, would appear on the 2010 and 2012 statewide election ballots.

If approved then by voters, there still would be obstacles to change, Legislative Counsel Bureau Brenda Erdoes said.

A 1990 voter-approved law puts the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision permitting abortion into Nevada statutes. Even if the state law were changed, it wouldn't override the Supreme Court's abortion ruling, she said.

Ziser said he was asked to circulate the personhood petition by several socially conservative and religious groups.

Their fear has been that Congress will pass health care legislation that includes reducing medical care to elderly people and helping them in making end-of-life decisions. Supporters of the health care legislation contend that such language is not in the bill.

Ziser's Personhood Nevada organization opposes abortion, but that is not the sole thrust of the petition, he said.

"The whole purpose of the petition is the protection of human rights and civil rights for all humans," he said. "We are talking about the full spectrum of life from the beginning to the end."

Elisa Maser, president and chief executive officer of Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood Affiliates, the lobbying and political arm of Planned Parenthood in Nevada, with advocates for reproductive rights, compared the initiative to a similar effort in Colorado in 2008.

That personhood initiative lost by a 3-to-1 margin, she said.

"It puts government, lawyers and the courts in the middle of our personal lives," Maser said.

She said her group and others are still studying Ziser's initiative and might challenge it on the grounds that it is too vague.

"That clearly is a critical question at this point," she said.

Ryan Erwin, a Republican political consultant who specializes in health issues, said it is too early to tell whether Ziser's initiative will have broader political implications.

"You can look at something initially on paper and know it will have the potential to drive turnout," Erwin said of hot-button issues.

But it takes more than a wedge issue on paper to drive voters to the polls, he said.

"It has to be qualified. Then it has to pass the legal scrutiny. Once it is qualified, it has to be funded well enough to run an actual campaign," Erwin said.

As for the personhood initiative, "it is way too early to gauge the validity of it," he said.

Ziser would not say how much money has been pledged for the petition drive.

In recent years, nearly every petition circulated around the state has been challenged in court. Successful petition drives have needed $1 million.

"The groups say they will raise the funds," he said, referring to the organizations supporting his cause: the Crisis Pregnancy Center, the Christian Action Council and the American Life League, a national Catholic group that opposes abortion and euthanasia.

"Obviously there are going to be legal costs," he said.

Ziser said he will have to rely on a lot of volunteers to collect the required signatures.

But without paid petition circulators, petition drives almost always have failed to secure spots on the Nevada election ballot in recent election cycles.

Before the petition can be put on the November 2010 ballot, Personhood Nevada needs to collect 97,002 valid signatures on its petitions by Aug. 4.

Anyone can file a legal challenge to the petition and its language by Nov. 12.

Because the petition proposes amending the state constitution, it requires a favorable vote of the people both in the 2010 and 2012 general elections.

Ziser is a former U.S. Senate candidate and the leader of the group that put the Protection of Marriage amendment before voters earlier this decade.

Voters approved the amendment, which specifies a marriage can be between only one man and one woman. Now the amendment is part of the state's constitution.

Ziser said he believes that fewer Nevadans support abortion rights today than 20 years ago.

Young people are more anti-abortion and are more aware that life starts at the moment of conception, he said.

He noted that young adults now often hang sonogram pictures of their children taken in the womb, an indication that they know life starts long before birth.

"I saw one in a real estate office yesterday," Ziser said.

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.