BISMARCK – A broad-based coalition of organizations and community leaders announced Feb. 19 that they have formed N.D. Choose Life, a ballot measure committee that will work to pass the Human Life Amendment on the November 2014 ballot. The amendment will be on the ballot as Measure 1.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to work with this outstanding coalition of groups and community leaders in support of the Human Life Amendment,” said Janne Myrdal, chairwoman of N.D. Choose Life. “This amendment will provide urgently needed legal protections in our state constitution to make sure our sensible laws to protect life, women, and families are upheld in the courts.”
N.D. Choose Life is a coalition of pro-life, pro-family, women’s and religious organizations. Supporters include the North Dakota Catholic Conference, North Dakota Family Alliance, North Dakota Life League, Love Them Both, North Dakota Right to Life and the North Dakota chapter of Concerned Women for America, among others. The coalition’s web site is under construction, but supporters can register at
NDChooseLife.com.
“We have some wonderful laws on the books such as ensuring that women are given full disclosure of information prior to an abortion, making sure parents are notified if their daughter is seeking an abortion, and prohibiting children who are partially born from being killed before their birth can be completed,” Myrdal said. “Unfortunately, wealthy out-of-state special interest groups regularly challenge our laws and attempt to persuade judges to invent a state constitutional right to abortion as a way of overturning these laws. The Human Life Amendment will give us needed legal protection against a judge inventing a right to abortion, as recently happened in Fargo.”
Ruling on the validity of two laws passed by the N.D. legislature to protect the health and safety of women receiving abortions, Judge Wickham Corwin claimed that the North Dakota constitution contains an implicit right to abortion. The Human Life Amendment would make clear that the constitution protects every person’s inalienable right to life.