Mississippi's failed 'personhood' amendment: 3 takeaways

A proposal to define a fertilized human egg as a person was expected to pass in Mississippi, and radically alter the abortion debate. Why didn't it?

Anti abortion activist protest in D.C.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

One of the biggest surprises of this week's off-year elections was the failure of Mississippi's controversial 'personhood' amendment, which would have defined a fertilized human egg as a person. Polls suggested the measure would pass easily in the strongly anti-abortion state. Instead, it lost 57 percent to 43 percent. What happened? Here, three lessons:

1. The anti-abortion movement is split

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