Ohio ‘Personhood’ Amendment Fails

An anti-abortion group failed Tuesday to collect enough signatures before the deadline to put a so-called “personhood” amendment on the ballot. The group wanted to alter to the state’s constitution to declare that life begins when a human egg is fertilized. Personhood Ohio had collected only about 30,000 signatures for the proposed amendment, which requires 385,000 to be placed on the ballot. The amendment’s supporters had hoped they would buck the tide of failures of similar bills in other states by saying it wouldn’t affect “genuine contraception” or in vitro procedures. The group pledged to continue to collect signatures into 2013.