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Petitions Regarding Rights And Protection Of Fertilized Egg Certified

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has certified petitions so that a group called Personhood Ohio can start the process of collecting the signatures needed to put the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. If that happens, it would be up to Ohio voters to decide whether to give full constitutional protection to a fertilized egg so that it, under the eyes of the law, would be treated as a person.

Backers of the idea had put a similar constitutional amendment before voters in Mississippi recently but voters there struck it down. Backers of the plan say it would eliminate abortion in Ohio.

But opponents of the Personhood plan say it would also eliminate in vitro fertilization and some common forms of birth control too. And they say the nation's highest court would likely rule it unconstitutional.