A woman fights to ban abortion with new definition of person

DENVER - As the World Trade Center towers collapsed into smoking ruins on Sept. 11, 2001, Mike Burton gathered his three children in their Peyton home and told them, "It's up to you guys to change the world."

Seven years after the attacks that left Americans stunned, Coloradans may be voting on a proposal that Kristi Burton, a 20-year-old deeply religious home-schooled woman, thinks will change the world: an abortion ban.

Dubbed the Personhood Amendment, her proposal is simple in its succinctness: It states that the state constitution should be amended to define a person as including any human being from the moment of fertilization.

The implications of that statement, though, are certain to make Colorado a national battleground on the abortion issue - it could outlaw abortions and some birth control.

It's a battle Burton doesn't shy from.

"If I know what's going on and do nothing, that's not how I should live my life," she said last week, citing one of her favorite biblical verses. "I honestly feel that this is what God called me to do."

It's a calling she says she's had since she was 13.

It's also been what's guided her since an even earlier age when her mother, Debra Burton, would read inspirational stories to her and her two brothers as part of their education.

The stories were about taking on powerful institutions or standing up for what's right, stories about Martin Luther, who led the Protestant Reformation, and Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape the Nazis during World War II.

Burton would tell her mother she wished she'd been born during another time when she could have been the champion of the downtrodden.

"She's always been a very committed person, very sincere, an ‘I-want-tomake-a-difference-in-theworld-type person,'" said John S. Smith, senior pastor of Majestic View Church, the Baptist church in Kiowa that the Burtons have attended for seven years. "She was raised that way, but there's always been something about her that doesn't want to sit back and watch the world go by."

Burton and her organization, Colorado for Equal Rights, must turn in 76,047 valid signatures of registered voters by May 13 to qualify for the ballot. Organizers said recently they are within a couple of thousand of their goal.

Defining life in the constitution as beginning at fertilization would not immediately ban abortions.

But laws or lawsuits based on it could make abortion a crime and possibly ban birth control that keeps fertilized eggs from implanting, such as the morning-after pill.

Burton said she chose that approach because the Supreme Court, in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, wrote the ruling could be overturned if the personhood of the fetus is established.

Ironically, Burton's crusade has split the national anti-abortion movement.

The Catholic Conference of Colorado has said this isn't the right time to try to pass an outright ban, preferring to chip at Roe v. Wade.

Burton, who's working toward a law degree through online courses offered by Oak Brook College based in her native California, doesn't have any doubts about what she's doing.

She uses the word "right" whenever discussing what's she doing and why.

"I always believe it's the right time to do what's right," she said.

Burton's parents moved to Colorado in 1996 with their daughter and two sons, Danny and Josh.

Her mother has counseled women who've had abortions, and her father had done counseling through their church.

Their daughter was not a typical teenager. Although she spent some time at the mall, she was more likely to be found with her brothers - they all have "code names" for each other.

During her high school studies, she competed in American Legion speech tournaments, taking the anti-abortion side.

She earned a high school diploma at 15 and began a program at her church in which she talks to young girls about purity, appropriate dress and appropriate behavior.

Before beginning her Personhood petition drive, her political experience was limited to working as a volunteer for U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn's campaign in 2006.

She chose law school to gain the expertise needed for the legal fight against abortion rights that she knew was ahead of her, she said.

Her family not only supports her cause, they are her campaign staff and foot soldiers while she gives talks on Christian radio programs and at churches.

Her father works full time on the campaign, and her mother handles the office tasks. Danny, 19, and Josh, 17, hand out campaign material.

"This is her coming out," Mike Burton said of his daughter. "She's been an inspiration to me."

Burton's dedication has galvanized those whose beliefs mirror hers.

Her campaign director, Keith Mason, was working in Kansas when he read about Burton and immediately called to volunteer his services.

Cal Zastrow, formerly chairman of Michigan Citizens for Life, moved his wife and four children to Colorado to work as the campaign's volunteer coordinator.

"She's a breath of fresh air," said Mason, a veteran of the anti-abortion movement. "In politics, you tend to get jaded. I think Kristi's optimism and boldness to step forward is just what this campaign needs."

"She is a diamond in the pro-life movement," said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League.

Abortion rights activists are preparing for what they see as this election year's most serious assault on Roe v. Wade.

"This amendment ... is vague and it's dangerous and it invites government intrusion into people's lives," said Toni Panetta, spokeswoman for the Protect Families Protect Choice Ballot Committee.

Jody Berger, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, said the organization will be involved in the campaign but declined to confirm Burton's claim that it will pour up to $10 million into the state to fight her Personhood Amendment.

A coalition that includes Planned Parenthood and the League of Women Voters will launch its campaign against the initiative Tuesday, arguing that because of the broad language, in-vitro fertilization and common birth-control methods such as the pill could be outlawed.

Burton knows it will get harder if her proposal gets on the ballot. Mason has received death threats and she's also been threatened, Burton said.

"It's kind of scary, but it doesn't make me doubt what I believe in. I know it's right," she said recently. "I do trust that this is in God's hands and this is what I'm supposed to do."

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303) 837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com

PERSONHOOD AMENDMENT

What it says:
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution defining the term "person" to include any human being from the moment of fertilization as "person" is used in those provisions of the Colorado constitution relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice and due process of law?

What it could do:

- Ban abortion in Colorado c Ban some forms of birth control

- Ban fetal homicide that can occur during attacks on a pregnant woman

COLORADO ABORTION MEASURES

Colorado voters have weighed in on abortion initiatives several times during the past decade. Here's how they turned out:

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban (1998): Failed 51% to 49%

Parental Notification for Abortion Requirement (1998): Passed 55% to 45%

Requirements for Consent to Abortion (2000): Failed 61% to 39%