Did the text of the proposition come short in this manner, or did its “official explanation” come short? That this is never intended to apply in cases where the life of the mother is in danger?
There was no text remotely discussing this or even abortion, though the intent was clearly not to make any exceptions for the life of the mother or incest.
It was simply:
BALLOT SUMMARY: Initiative #26 would amend the Mississippi Constitution to define the word “person” or “persons”, as those terms are used in Article III of the state constitution, to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.
Which is the functional equivalent of no abortions, no exceptions, and as people realized, would probably be used to try to ban birth control pills as well. And as I've pointed out, very quickly morphs into child welfare social workers, homicide detectives, and coroners poking around people's uteruses and vaginal effusions on demand.