Most marriage questions pass but limits on cloning, abortion fail

Published: 2006-11-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Voters in seven states approved constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman Nov. 7, but Catholic-backed proposals to limit human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research in Missouri and abortion in South Dakota were defeated. By a narrow margin, Arizona appeared to become the first state to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage. In another rebuff to the recommendations of the state's Catholic bishops, voters in Arizona approved proposals sharply limiting state services to illegal immigrants and making English the state's official language. Measures that would have required parental notification before a minor's abortion were voted down in Oregon and California, while voters in Wisconsin approved an advisory referendum that could lead to reinstatement of the death penalty in that state. Proposals to raise the minimum wage won approval in six states, while voters in Michigan approved a constitutional amendment to ban affirmative action programs that take race or gender into consideration for public employment, education or contracting purposes. Michigan's bishops had urged defeat of the amendment. In all, there were 205 ballot questions before voters in 37 states, and Catholic leaders had taken stands on many of them.

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