American Life League

American Life League

TALLAHASSEE, FL-- Redefining when human life begins is the centerpiece of proposed state constitutional amendment. No human life is discarded, no human life is unloved, no human life deserves to be put at the end of an abortion, no human life deserves to be let go," says Shaun Kenney with the American Life League. On Friday the American Life League Introduced the “Personhood Amendment" in Tallahassee. The league says the amendment will change Florida's constitution to recognize a person regardless of age, race or health. And that a person is created at the beginning of biological development of a human being, essentially defining a newly formed embryo as a person. The group has started grassroots efforts in Florida and more than a dozen states across the country to get amendments on ballots as early as 2010.

"We're going to do it the Christian way. We're going to do it through volunteers. People who care about the life of babies are going to go out and gather signatures,” says Dr. Pat McEwen with Personhood Florida. "The American Life League is a fringe group that has been behind these amendments in the past however their record hasn't been very successful,” says Adrienne Kimmell with Planned Parenthood. The league tried but failed to pass similar amendments just last year in states including Colorado. Kimmel says although Planned Parenthood opposes the initial language of the amendment, she is also concerned with how far the final language could go, and whether it could even attempt to restrict access to birth control. "I think what we've seen in other states in the past in Colorado, and other states that I mentioned, is language that could be interpreted as banning birth control," Kimmell says. The American Life League will have to get upwards of 700,000 signatures by February 1st in order to get their amendment on November ballot.

Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. American Life League is having a surprising effect on the health care reform debate. Media coverage of our activities has brought out a lot of good people and some people who are terribly confused. Here’s one example. American Life League designed a placard for the September 12 taxpayer protest in Washington, D.C. that reads, “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy.” This slogan offended some people, even though it is based on the undeniable fact that President Obama is proposing health care reform that is philosophically in tune with the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s culture-of-death convictions. It is based on the record and the fact that Kennedy was the architect of the so-called health care reform legislation.Many bloggers, such as Pol