Rebecca Kiessling, Esq.

I strongly urge everyone to support the California Equal Rights Amendment (CERA), which would amend the California Constitution to define "persons" as "all living human organisms from the beginning of their biological development."  This is critical because the 14th Amendment "due process clause" and "equal protection clause" to the United States Constitution state as follows:  "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Article 1, Section 7a of the California Constitution has very similar language.  The majority opinion of the United States Supreme Court in Roe v Wade, Sec. IX, states, "If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment." However, the Court went on to say:  "On the other hand, the appellee conceded on reargument that no case could be cited that holds that a fetus is a person within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment." And then the Court concluded, "In short, the unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons in the whole sense."

Click here to read Rebecca's entire CHRA endorsement.

 — Rebecca Kiessling, Esq., family law attorney, Michigan