Endorsements

My name is Rebecca Kiessling. I am a fam­ily law attor­ney from Michi­gan and inter­na­tional pro-life speaker. I’ve lit­i­gated numer­ous high-profile cases defend­ing pre-born human life, includ­ing the “frozen embryo” case in Michi­gan — the third of its kind in the U.S.. I’m also an adoptee who was con­ceived in rape and nearly aborted at two back-alley abor­tion­ists. I write this not only with exper­tise as a pro-life lit­i­ga­tor and activist, but also with a per­sonal stake in the out­come. After all, I’m alive today solely because my life was legally pro­tected in Michi­gan at the time I was devel­op­ing in utero. Michi­gan vot­ers and leg­is­la­tors who were 100% pro-life — no exceptions/no com­pro­mise — are my heroes. I owe my life to them and that is why I, in turn, do the same for others.

There­fore, I strongly urge every­one to sup­port the Florida Per­son­hood Amend­ment, which would amend the Florida Con­sti­tu­tion to define “per­son” and “nat­ural per­sons” as apply­ing “to all human beings, irre­spec­tive of age, race, health, func­tion, con­di­tion of phys­i­cal and/or men­tal depen­dency and/or dis­abil­ity, or method of repro­duc­tion, from the begin­ning of the bio­log­i­cal devel­op­ment of that human being.” 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 2 of the Florida Con­sti­tu­tion declares: “All nat­ural per­sons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalien­able rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life.” 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.”

If a major­ity of states legally rec­og­nize the unborn “as per­sons in the whole sense,” then the whole Roe v Wade opin­ion col­lapses. This is why we must sup­port per­son­hood from state to state!

Addi­tion­ally, with per­son­hood, there are no “excep­tions.” It would be ridicu­lous to sug­gest that all unborn chil­dren are per­sons except for chil­dren con­ceived in rape. And just to be clear, the Florida Per­son­hood Amend­ment specif­i­cally pro­vides that the term “per­son” applies irre­spec­tive of the method of reproduction.

We’ve been stuck in the desert for nearly 40 years. I’m tired of those who are afraid of the “giants in the land.” Chip­ping away at abor­tion has not brought us any closer to end­ing abor­tion in our nation. God is not going to honor medi­oc­rity and com­pro­mise when it comes to the slaugh­ter of inno­cent chil­dren who He cre­ated in His image. I want to have the same spirit of bold­ness that David and Caleb and Joshua had, rec­og­niz­ing that God is on our side and we don’t need to be afraid. Let’s take this giant out by hit­ting him where it counts. With this issue, per­son­hood is where it counts, and the oppo­si­tion knows it.

When you can say that you are pro-life with­out excep­tion, it’s like say­ing, “I get it — you mat­ter. Yours was a life worth sav­ing!” Now I hope you’ll go forth and do the same for oth­ers by sup­port­ing the Florida Per­son­hood Amend­ment. Let’s get this done.

For life, Rebecca Kiessling, www.rebeccakiessling.com

Our Con­sti­tu­tion states that no per­son shall be denied Life, Lib­erty or prop­erty. There­fore we must define every unborn child as a per­son. If we can give enemy com­bat­ants Con­sti­tu­tional pro­tec­tion, we can and must give it to our unborn babies.

Art Arge­nio, Florida House can­di­date
We wel­come all can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Florida to make the same prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand: personhoodFL@gmail.com

I am writ­ing you this note to let you know that I sup­port the Per­son­hoodFL inti­tia­tive. I have per­son­ally com­pleted a per­son­hood peti­tion. At its very heart, I believe that the per­son­hood ini­tia­tive reflects the val­ues of our founders, those being, the right to life, lib­erty and the pur­suit of happiness.

Sin­cerely,

Dr. Mike Hofstee
We wel­come all can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Florida to make the same prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand: personhoodFL@gmail.com

We have nib­bled around the edges of the abor­tion holo­caust for almost forty years and, dur­ing that time, more than 50 mil­lion babies have been slaugh­tered.  Some­where along the way, we lost sight of the fact that our goal is not to reg­u­late abor­tion, restrict abor­tion, reduce the num­bers of abor­tions or ham­mer out some sort of accom­mo­da­tion with the abor­tion lobby.  Today, the most impor­tant ques­tion for the pro-life move­ment is: when are we going to return to our roots and drive a stake through the heart of this foul-smelling beast?  And that doesn’t mean sim­ply over­turn­ing Roe v. Wade.  It means pass­ing a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment that affirms the per­son­hood of the unborn from the instant of fer­til­iza­tion.  Until that hap­pens, this bat­tle can­not end; it can only ebb and flow.


 
Mark Crutcher, President

Life Dynam­ics Incorporated

I am an inde­pen­dent con­ser­v­a­tive run­ning for the United States Sen­ate and I believe whole­heart­edly in Per­son­hood and if elected to the United States Sen­ate, I will do every­thing in my power to sup­port Per­son­hood and pro­tect the life of the unborn child.

Bernie DeCas­tro
P.O. Box 3336
Ocala, FL 34478
www.electbernie.com
We wel­come all can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Florida to make the same prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand: personhoodFL@gmail.com

America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida endorses the Per­son­hood Con­sti­tu­tional Amend­ment Ini­tia­tive and Petition.

America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida is a sov­er­eign polit­i­cal party for the state of Florida under the laws of the state, orga­nized for the pur­poses of the elec­tion of can­di­dates and pass­ing or defeat­ing of mea­sures and other related activ­ity in accor­dance with the prin­ci­ples of the Party. (CONSTITUTION OF AMERICA’S INDEPENDENT PARTY OF FLORIDA:
ARTICLE I: NAME, IDENTITY, AND AFFILIATION: http://aipnews.com/mxPage.asp?SID=FL&ID=19)

America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida urges enact­ment of the Per­son­hood Con­sti­tu­tional Amend­ment; we urge our affil­i­ates and oth­ers to work to see that it is passed.

This pro­posal for amend­ing the Florida Con­sti­tu­tion is in accord with Florida law and the prin­ci­ple of one nation under God with gov­ern­ment of the peo­ple, by the peo­ple, and for the peo­ple. This pro­posed Per­son­hood amend­ment rein­forces the repub­li­can prin­ci­ples of the State of Florida as declared in its Con­sti­tu­tions (cur­rent and for­mer), and of Amer­ica, as stated in its found­ing doc­u­ments: the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence, the Con­sti­tu­tion, includ­ing the Bill of Rights. America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida has affirmed these prin­ci­ples in its own con­sti­tu­tion, as well as in the con­sti­tu­tion of the national America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of which we are a part, which declares and con­firms our com­mit­ment to these principles.

As free cit­i­zens of the United States and founders of America’s Inde­pen­dent Party, we stand in agree­ment with the founders of our Amer­i­can Repub­lic. Fol­low­ing their exam­ple, we declare to the world that our first gov­ern­men­tal premise is the self-evident truth that our rights to life, lib­erty and pri­vate prop­erty come from our Cre­ator God and are there­fore unalien­able. With those patri­ots, we under­stand that just gov­ern­ment can only exist by the con­sent of the governed.

Our pledge, indi­vid­u­ally and cor­po­rately, is to seek to pre­serve, pro­tect and defend the Con­sti­tu­tion of the United States. We will dili­gently work to secure the Bless­ings of Lib­erty to our­selves and our pos­ter­ity, and thereby ful­fill the stated pur­poses of the Con­sti­tu­tion of the United States and this organization.

In recog­ni­tion of the mul­ti­tude of ways in which our nation’s lead­ers have departed from America’s found­ing prin­ci­ples, we hereby peti­tion local, state and fed­eral gov­ern­ment for redress of such griev­ances, with the urgent imper­a­tive demand that all offi­cers of gov­ern­ment hence­forth faith­fully per­form their sworn duty to defend inno­cent human life and con­sti­tu­tional repub­li­can governance.

Our work is ded­i­cated to our God; to all the patri­ots who came before us in self-sacrifice for lib­erty; to all of those who now faith­fully serve our coun­try; and to the pos­ter­ity that will enjoy the blessed fruit of all their labors.

Together, as Amer­i­cans, let us find the prin­ci­pled grounds for coop­er­a­tion that will allow us to fully restore moral gov­ern­ment of, by and for the peo­ple.
(CONSTITUTION OF AMERICA’S INDEPENDENT PARTY OF FLORIDA: ARTICLE II: PURPOSES: http://aipnews.com/mxPage.asp?SID=FL&ID=19)

Fur­ther­more, the Con­sti­tu­tion of America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida states:
In accor­dance with the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence and the Con­sti­tu­tion built upon its premise, we affirm the right to life of inno­cent human beings from con­cep­tion (fer­til­iza­tion) to nat­ural death. By the Fifth and Four­teenth Amend­ments we affirm both America’s and the state’s gov­ern­ments’ oblig­a­tion to defend inno­cent human life.

We rec­og­nize the per­son­hood of human beings from fer­til­iza­tion (or con­cep­tion as tra­di­tion­ally under­stood) to nat­ural death. The Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence acknowl­edges a dis­tinct dig­nity of human beings when it asserts: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre­ated equal, that they are endowed by their Cre­ator with cer­tain unalien­able Rights, that among these are Life, Lib­erty and the pur­suit of Hap­pi­ness.” Basic human rights should not be sac­ri­ficed to ani­mal rights or other con­cerns for the envi­ron­ment.
(ARTICLE III: PRINCIPLES: http://aipnews.com/mxPage.asp?SID=FL&ID=19)

America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida, in accor­dance with its own prin­ci­ples and those of America’s Inde­pen­dent Party (National Com­mit­tee) and the First Prin­ci­ples of Amer­ica as stated in the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence and the Con­sti­tu­tion of the United States, and in accor­dance with the 1885 Con­sti­tu­tion (“All men are equal before the law and have cer­tain inalien­able rights, among which are those of enjoy­ing and defend­ing life”) and the cur­rent Con­sti­tu­tion (“No per­son shall be deprived of life, lib­erty or prop­erty with­out due process of law.…” Arti­cle I: DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, SECTION 9: Due Process) of the State of Florida, endorses the Per­son­hood Con­sti­tu­tional Amendment.

Gre­gory Pou­los
Chair­man, America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida

Carl V. Bibeau
Vice Chair­man, America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida

Karen Pou­los
Sec­re­tary, America’s Inde­pen­dent Party of Florida

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of our tiny citizens!

Tami Don­nally, Can­di­date for State House Dis­trict 85
We wel­come all can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Florida to make the same prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand: personhoodFL@gmail.com

The Evan­gel­i­cal Bible Col­lege and Sem­i­nary is pleased to endorse the Per­son­hood Amendment.

Dr. David P. Don­nally, President

Fel­low Mem­bers of Florida’s Pro Life Community:

I whole­heart­edly sup­port the ini­tia­tive for a Per­son­hood Amend­ment to our state con­sti­tu­tion. Not only does pro-life include pro­tect­ing the unborn, but all peo­ple at every stage of their lives. Every indi­vid­ual has dig­nity and it is not the func­tion of gov­ern­ment to decide which lives have more value than oth­ers. You have my pledge that as your U.S. Sen­a­tor I will pur­sue this at the fed­eral level as vig­or­ously as I led the fight to enact the Par­tial Birth Abor­tion Ban dur­ing my pre­vi­ous tenure in the U.S. Senate.

May God bless our efforts on this vital issue.

Sen­a­tor Bob

Robert C. Smith
For­mer United States Sen­a­tor (1991–2003); and
Can­di­date for United States Sen­ate from Florida
This is an offi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion autho­rized by Friends of Sen­a­tor Bob Smith. Paid for by Friends of Sen­a­tor Bob Smith. Not autho­rized by any other can­di­date com­mit­tee or polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee.
We wel­come all can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Florida to make the same prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand: personhoodFL@gmail.com

“Per­son­hood efforts should be in all 50 states and every­where Life is held in high esteem. It’s the best way to keep our unborn chil­dren from dying. Do I hear an Amen!”

–Norma McCor­vey, Founder of Roe No More Min­istry, Oper­a­tion Out­cry
Pro-Life Activist. Norma has been jailed twice this year for her
pro-life con­vic­tions.
[Norma McCor­vey is the Jane Roe in the Roe v. Wade decision.]

“As a Father who has lost a child to an abor­tion, I know the pain that abor­tion causes. The pass­ing of the Per­son­hood amend­ment will rec­og­nize per­son­hood for all human beings and will save many peo­ple the pain that I once endured.

“In see­ing my child at eight weeks ges­ta­tion in an ultra­sound, our child had fin­gers, toes, eyes, every­thing. I saw and heard my child’s heart beat and I cried. It was a very over­whelm­ing and beau­ti­ful expe­ri­ence for me, until she looked over at me and said: “What are you cry­ing about? Worms have heart­beats too”. Her sis­ter had offered to pay $500 for her to get an abor­tion. She insisted she was going to get the abor­tion, was plan­ning to get one that week­end, and broke up with me right before.

“I called the abor­tion clinic and asked what my rights were; they said “You don’t have any”. I then asked them, “What do you do with the aborted babies? I want to bury my child”. They told me that it wasn’t a child, it was a fetus, and to never call again or they would involve the police. My hands were tied. I, as a father had no legal right to pro­tect my child from a death com­mit­ted by a “doc­tor”. I called every­one imag­in­able to see what my rights were and I got the same answer: “nothing”.

“I saw for my own eyes that Per­son­hood starts in the womb.”

–Theo Pur­ing­ton, the father

“Speak­ing on behalf of Florida Stu­dents for Life, it is with great
excite­ment, zeal and antic­i­pa­tion that I endorse Per­son­hood USA and
Per­son­hood FL. We applaud the mis­sion, the work, and all efforts put
forth by Per­son­hood FL. Par­tic­u­larly, we sup­port their efforts in
work­ing for leg­is­la­tion and con­sti­tu­tional amend­ments, as appro­pri­ate
steps towards free­dom and pro­tec­tion for all. We are happy to work
along­side Per­son­hood FL on cam­puses through­out the state in tak­ing
these mon­u­men­tal steps towards rec­og­niz­ing and defend­ing the right to
life for all per­sons, from the begin­ning to the end.”

–Jen­nifer M. Kacerosky, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Florida Stu­dents for Life

“Each year when I share with our con­gre­ga­tion about the sanc­tity of human life I am faced with a dilemma. Sta­tis­ti­cally 50% of those lis­ten­ing have been hurt by the pain that abor­tion causes. They do not want to hear the word abor­tion or a ser­mon about it because it can sur­face painful mem­o­ries. So every year I must resolve that the risk of caus­ing pain and being rejected is worth the prob­a­bil­ity that peo­ple will be healed by God. I’ve come to real­ize that say­ing noth­ing is not lov­ing and doing noth­ing is not lov­ing. We all need to do some­thing when it comes to the life and rights of the unborn. So this year when the oppor­tu­nity arises to do some­thing about the Per­son­hood Amend­ment, I humbly ask you to pub­licly sup­port it among those entrusted to you by God.”

–Pas­tor Jeff Stef­fel, Grace Fam­ily Church

“The per­son­hood amend­ment is an impor­tant step in re-affirming the value of every sin­gle per­son. I am pleased to endorse this effort to enshrine this prin­ci­ple in the Florida Constitution”

–Den­nis Bax­ley, can­di­date for State House Dis­trict 24, For­mer Speaker Pro Tem of the Florida House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and For­mer Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Florida’s Chris­t­ian Coali­tion
We wel­come all can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Florida to make the same prin­ci­pled and coura­geous stand: personhoodFL@gmail.com

“Per­son­hoodFL is a valu­able ally for the unborn chil­dren who are aborted each year in our nation at an alarm­ing rate. Sadly, Florida has one of the high­est per capita abor­tion rates, rank­ing eighth among the 50 states. As the say­ing goes: ‘He who asks the ques­tions wins the debate.’ We want to ask a ques­tion of every Florid­ian on the Novem­ber bal­lot, in effect: ‘Do you believe that life begins at con­cep­tion and that the unborn child is a per­son with human rights?’ In our strug­gle to pro­tect the lives of the inno­cent, we need to press the issue of when life begins, to get peo­ple think­ing about it; debat­ing it with their fam­ily, friends and col­leagues; and ulti­mately sup­port­ing the Per­son­hood of the unborn child at the polls in November.”

–Jay Rogers -, Direc­tor of The Fore­run­ner, www.forerunner.com

The Florida per­son­hood move­ment is momen­tous. It is impor­tant that in every level of the polit­i­cal arena, city, state and national, there is a stal­wart line of defense for the small­est per­son of all, the lit­tle human being in the womb. The United States of Amer­ica con­sists of fifty states. As the num­ber of states increases where the human being is pro­tected from the moment of con­cep­tion by state con­sti­tu­tions, more chil­dren will live to have fun on a play­ground. The laws that keep a child safe on the play­ground is mean­ing­less if laws do not keep a child safe in the womb.

What the Florida Per­son­hood move­ment is advo­cat­ing is right and it is just. Those in this move­ment can achieve a won­der­ful suc­cess­ful future where every human being is rec­og­nized as a per­son deserv­ing the pro­tec­tion of the state’s con­sti­tu­tion in the exer­cis­ing of their God given rights which includes the right to live, the right to be free and the right to pur­sue that which makes one happy, even as a child. Just as the ultra­sound pic­tures of pre-born babies serve to remind us, the laugh­ter of chil­dren on the play­ground, the school yard and even at home, is also a pur­pose­ful reminder that every per­son is a human being and every human being is a person.

–Dr. Johnny Hunter, DD, Life Edu­ca­tion and Resource Net­works learninc.org

Life Coali­tion Inter­na­tional is proud to be a spon­sor of Per­son­hood Florida. This is a “fully” pro-life ini­tia­tive that we can proudly sup­port. Per­son­hoodFL changes the yard­stick that we use to judge “pro-life” from the state­ment, “I am pro-life because I am against some abor­tions” to, “am pro-life and I am will­ing to defend the right to life of all per­sons not just some!

–Dr. Patri­cia McEwen, Direc­tor, Life Coali­tion Inter­na­tional.
Flip Ben­ham, National Direc­tor, Oper­a­tion Save America

“I heartily endorse the efforts of the Florida Per­son­hood Cam­paign to firmly re-establish in law the right to life of the human per­son from the “begin­ning of the [individual’s] bio­log­i­cal devel­op­ment” to the moment of nat­ural death. As Catholics we can­not have any other stance but this! It is both the mes­sage of the Gospel and the mes­sage of com­mon sense, and every effort to place this issue on the top of vot­ers’ agen­das has the sup­port of Human Life Inter­na­tional and all our affil­i­ates through­out the world. Our prayers also accom­pany this work of spir­i­tual battle.”

–Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, Pres­i­dent, Human Life Inter­na­tional, Sep­tem­ber 1, 2009

“Amer­i­can Life League proudly stands with Florida’s his­toric move­ment to rec­og­nize the most basic of all human rights – per­son­hood. As we daily bat­tle the rav­ages of the cul­ture of death, it is clear the only way to heal our land and restore the Founders’ vision is to rec­og­nize human per­son­hood as a fun­da­men­tal and Con­sti­tu­tional right.
Every human being is a per­son from his or her bio­log­i­cal begin­ning. The mis­sion is sim­ple, the mes­sage direct and the result will be a pro­found return to the value that shaped our civ­i­liza­tion.
As the Florida per­son­hood move­ment blazes a trail for true human rights, we renew our com­mit­ment to human per­son­hood as the cen­ter and mis­sion of our work at Amer­i­can Life League. Human per­son­hood is the core of Catholic Social Teach­ing and the foun­da­tion of true human rights and dig­nity. It is always the right time to fight for justice.”

–Judie Brown, Pres­i­dent, Amer­i­can Life League