‘Personhood’ appeal denied by high court

The U.S. Supreme Court this week effectively killed Oklahoma’s “personhood” amendment, which sought to grant state constitutional protections to human embryos starting at conception. The nation’s highest court refused to overrule the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to toss out a proposed ballot initiative which defined a fertilized egg as a person with rights to due process and equal treatment. Opponents called the initiative an attempt to ban abortion in the state, in violation of U.S. Supreme Court precedents. The Oklahoma court said in its decision that the proposed constitutional amendment was “repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.”

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