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Initiative underway for ‘legal personhood' status for fetus

by Rebecca Palsha
Thursday, October 29, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sponsors of an initiative for "legal personhood" are gathering signatures to get the issue on the ballot.

It's an attempt to make a fetus a legal person and it could affect birth control and abortion rights in Alaska.

Planned Parenthood says if it becomes law, it could lead to police investigating miscarriages.

Sponsors say it's a civil rights issue, and police would only investigate if it appears the miscarriage was actually an abortion.

Christine Kurka hopes you'll notice her and join her in prayer.

"Abortion is an evil, even though they feel it's a necessary evil, it is an evil," Kurka says.

For 40 day's she'll pray to end abortion. While she relies on a higher power, her brother Christopher relies on voters.

"It's 10 percent of those who voted in the last election," Chris Kurka, the ballot's sponsor, says.

"The state responsibility is to protect our rights, and the most fundamental of those rights is the right to life. So what we're doing here is asking the people of the state to sign this initiative, to get it on the ballot, and then to vote for it, so the unborn will be recognized as a person just like the rest of us," Chris says.

Planned Parenthood says if a fetus is recognized as a person, the consequences could range further than intended.

"Worst-case scenario is we might be in a situation where women or doctors would have to report if a woman had a miscarriage and then she might be investigated as to why. There are a lot of potential and unintended consequences for these initiatives and because we don't really know what they are until it's put into practice, I think it's kind of scary for women," said Clover Simon with Planned Parenthood of Alaska.

Another possibility, officials say, is that some birth control methods like an IUD might become illegal.

"There are certain implications for reproductive rights and for a woman's right to choose," Simon said.

"You can never eliminate abortion completely in a society because people are always going to do evil things. It brings to the forefront the issue of whether or not the unborn child is a person or not," says Chris Kurka.

It's time for voters to decide. Kurka hopes more than 30,000 registered voters agree with him and put the issue on the ballot.

Another abortion issue Planned Parenthood says it is concerned about is parental consent.

Signatures are still being gathered for that issue.

Contact Rebecca Palsha at rpalsha@ktuu.com