131,245 Personhood Signatures!
Historic Date May 13, 2008
DENVER, Colorado – Kristi Burton of Colorado for Equal Rights, along with a hundred of their 1,100 volunteers, delivered dozens of boxes containing 131,245 personhood signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State! That's 55,000 more than required by law to get the Personhood amendment on the November ballot!
"This is historic," said Colorado Right To Life president Joe Riccobono. "For the first time in any state, in forty years, pro-lifers are forcing a statewide opportunity to declare the personhood, and therefore, the right to life, of unborn children." A dozen reporters attending including from Denver's TV stations 4, 7, 9 and 31, and print journalists from the Colorado Statesman, Associated Press, Denver Post, and the Rocky Mountain News.
Colorado governing officials present included state senators and representatives Scott Renfro, Kevin Lundberg, Kent Lambert and Dave Schultheis; and Ted Harvey circulated a petition himself and turned in many signatures and presented the case for personhood in the campaign's national conference call at 7 p.m. A number of Planned Parenthood staffers came to the event and clapped with the crowd in hopes of blending in; then when two more showed up, a pro-life volunteer said to them, "the Planned Parenthood section is in the back, on the left."
Pro-life heroes like Audrey Dobson, Andrea Jaracz, Annie Gillespie, Lolita Hanks, Susan Sutherland, Jennifer Mason, Deborah Burton, Leslie Hanks, and so many more were there to celebrate and commit themselves to educating people about the truth! Mark Hotaling of the Christian Coalition of Colorado, a great, principled Christian ministry, was wonderfully encouraging as were campaign director Keith Mason, volunteer coordinator Cal Zastrow, amendment co-sponsor Mike Burton, and so many others at the Victory Rally and press conference! Some speakers like powerful speaker Lori Goebel made it clear that pro-lifers should stop regulating abortion, and stop supporting laws that end with, "and then you can kill the baby," and commit ourselves to declaring personhood and upholding the God-given right to life!