Abortion and 'personhood' on GOP campaign agenda

State-level initiatives to restrict access to abortions help make social issues a major focus of the Republican presidential nomination contest.

The Wall Street Journal: Abortion Resurfaces For GOP Field
Moves in several states to restrict or criminalize abortion are pushing one of the most divisive issues in politics up the Republican presidential-campaign agenda, complicating life for candidates who have been focused almost entirely on the economy. The result has been the emergence of some fissures within the GOP field, as well as some stumbles by candidates as their anti-abortion credentials are challenged (Williamson, 11/7).

USA Today/Jackson Clarion Ledger: Mississippians To Vote On 'Personhood' Initiative
Mississippians will vote Tuesday on a proposal that would define life as beginning "from the moment of fertilization," possibly the first state to put such language in its constitution. Initiative 26, which got more than 100,000 signatures to appear on the ballot, proposes to define a "person" as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof." The so-called personhood measure has split many in the state, particularly in religious and medical communities (Crisp, 11/6).

Meanwhile, former Sen. Rick Santorum announced some of his agenda.

Des Moines Register: Santorum: Boot Liberal Federal Judges, Defund Planned Parenthood
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum today proposed a conservative social and cultural policy agenda that includes removing liberal federal appeals court judges, defunding Planned Parenthood, kicking openly gay soldiers out of the military and seeking a constitutional ban on abortions. ... Santorum's plan includes ... advocating for a Personhood Amendment to the Constitution with the goal of banning abortions (Petroski, 11/4).