Longmont Mom Leading Effort For New Personhood Law
DENVER, Colo. (CBS4) - A Longmont mother whose unborn baby was killed by a drunk driver is now leading an effort to change Colorado law. She submitted petitions to the Secretary of State's Office on Monday to direct lawmakers to add "unborn human beings" to state criminal code.
"The Brady Amendment" will now be on the November ballot.
A year after her unborn baby was killed by a drunk driver, Heather Surovik is fighting to amend the Colorado Constitution to define her unborn son Brady as a person.
"This is really just getting justice," Surovik said.
When Surovik was hit by a drunk driver causing her son to die just days before he was to be born there wasn't a law allowing prosecutors to press charges. Now there is, but Surovik says it doesn't go nearly far enough.
Under the Crimes Against Pregnant Women Act a driver who kills an unborn baby faces 2 to 6 years in prison and/or $2,000 to $5,000 in fines. The law specifically says the unborn child is not a person and a woman who has an abortion can't be charged.
"Is it a back door to ending abortion? It's a back door in the sense that it points out that terrible hypocrisy of saying that a child in the womb is considered a person if they're wanted and then they're not considered a person if they're not wanted," Personhood Director Gualberto Garcia Jones said.
"I don't think it's backdoor at all, I think it's very apparent what their intent is, and their intent is to outlaw abortion in all cases," Cathy Alderman with Planned Parenthood said. "And along with that they will then restrict access to commonly used birth control methods,"
Voters have overwhelmingly rejected previous personhood measures, but Surovik believes this time will be different.
"I think anybody who sees Brady, his picture, and can tell me that he's not a person, that will make the difference," Surovik said. "Because 8 pounds 2 ounces, he was a person."
Surovik needed 86,000 signatures to put the Brady Amendment on the ballot. She handed in more than 139,000.
