Major Victory for Women’s Health in Mississippi

Statement of Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota

“Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS) is very pleased with the defeat of the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment in Mississippi.  Mississippi voters rejected the amendment because they understood it is government gone too far, plain and simple.  This is a major victory for women’s health.

We congratulate the Mississippians for Healthy Families Coalition, a coalition of doctors, nurses, clergy, parents and tens of thousands of Mississippians, which ran an amazing campaign to educate voters about the dangerous impact of the amendment.

The so-called ‘personhood’ amendment would have allowed government to have control over personal decisions that should be left up to a woman, her family, her doctor and her faith, including keeping a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy from getting the care she needs, and criminalizing everything from abortion to common forms of birth control such as the pill and the IUD.

The more voters learned about the many dangerous and extreme consequences of the initiative, the more they opposed it. Polling showed that in the final days leading up to the vote, when voters were given information about the so-called “personhood” amendment, support for it dropped below 50 percent. Mississippians from all walks of life, medical professionals, clergy, parents, and young women and men, spoke out in opposition to the amendment.

 Mississippi is now the second state to reject “personhood.” Colorado defeated the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment by wide margins in 2008 and 2010.”

For more than 80 years, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota has worked in our region to make sure all people have the information and the means to make free and responsible decisions about whether and when to have children.  Planned Parenthood operates 20 clinics in Minnesota and South Dakota and an Online Health Center, providing quality and affordable family planning, reproductive health care services and education to nearly 64,000  women and men each year.

Visit us on the web at www.ppmns.org