Colo. measure tests strategy to ban abortion

Instead, Bopp said the NRLC is working on banning partial birth abortions, providing information about fetal pain, and promoting the use of ultrasounds to show women the fetus' heartbeat. The hope is that women planning to have abortions would change their minds.

"Our efforts to educate and regulate are preparing for the day when we can overturn Roe v. Wade," Bopp said. "The reality is we can't now, because the Supreme Court is unwilling."

Such incremental strategies aren't enough for Burton, who claims no affiliation with any outside anti-abortion group. The home-schooled student says she first became aware of the cause at age 13, when in 2000 Colorado voters rejected an amendment calling for a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.

"I really believe every time in history we live in, there are people that need to be saved," she said. "In our time in history in America it is the unborn."

In Mississippi, which along with North and South Dakota has only one abortion provider, an effort to put a human life amendment to a vote fizzled in 2005. Supporters have until January to turn in signatures to place the issue on the ballot next year.

Legislative efforts are under way in Alabama and Georgia but died in Montana, while a petition in Michigan failed to muster enough signatures to get on the ballot. In Oregon, the Thomas More Law Center is challenging the state attorney general's rejection of the initiative.

Human life amendment ‘has already been tested’
"Human life amendments have been bouncing around in one way or another since Roe v. Wade," said Susan Hill, president of the Raleigh, N.C.-based National Women's Health Organization, which is the sole abortion provider in Mississippi. If passed, a human life amendment would "be ruled unconstitutional at this point because it has already been tested."

In Colorado, longtime independent pollster Floyd Ciruli thinks backers of Burton's measure will find it difficult to muster enough votes.

"A direct attack would probably serve the interest of supporters of abortion because I think it would be much easier for them to rally, whereas a more subtle challenge could likely slip under the radar," Ciruli said.

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