State Rep. Rick Jore of Ronan, a staunch abortion opponent, hopes to have Montana voters decide next year whether the state constitution should define "person" in such a way as to outlaw abortion.

Jore, the Legislature's only Constitution Party member, is proposing a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to define person as "a human being at all stages of human development or life, including the state of fertilization."

If the measure gets on the 2008 general election ballot and is approved, essentially defining life as beginning at conception, the Montana Legislature would have little choice but to outlaw abortion, Jore said Tuesday.

Jore also said the initiative could be a national focal point for anti-abortion forces.

"There's been an effort across the nation to go to this strategy in the pro-life arena, to challenge the whole notion of Roe v. Wade by establishing the definition of a person," he said, referring to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

Jore submitted language for the proposed constitutional initiative to the secretary of state's office two weeks ago.

After state officials review the measure for form, Jore and his supporters can begin gathering signatures of registered Montana voters, in an attempt to qualify the measure for the 2008 ballot. He said he hopes it's ready for distribution within a few weeks.

Supporters would have until next June to gather at least 44,615 signatures statewide and signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters in each of at least 40 of the 100 state House districts.

Jore said it will be "no easy task" getting the signatures and qualifying the measure for the 2008 ballot.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Montana, which performs abortions, said the measure threatens the health of pregnant women by giving fetuses rights that supersede those of the expectant mother.

The constitutional change would "threaten not only (women's) personal health and medical decision-making, but also their rights to privacy and dignity, beginning in the very earliest stages of pregnancy," said Stacey Anderson, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Montana.

"The Montana Constitution doesn't need an amendment like this -- one so extreme that the women of Montana will lose all of their rights, including their own right to health and medical privacy," she added.

The initiative is identical to a constitutional amendment proposed and sponsored by Jore during the 2007 Legislature. That bill died in the House on a 45-53 vote in February.

Jore said the close vote in the House encouraged him to attempt a ballot measure, which would need approval by a majority of Montana voters.

While the measure would define a fetus as a person, it would not directly outlaw abortion, he said.

It would establish constitutional rights for a fetus or human embryo, so they could not be deprived of "life, liberty and property" without due process of law, Jore said.

The Legislature would have to pass laws to implement that definition, he said, and that likely would mean abortion would be outlawed as something that, without due process, deprives a fetus of the right to life.

"My view of 'due process' is that you have to have had a trial and be found guilty, and I have a very hard time understanding how we could find an unborn child guilty of anything," Jore said.