"Dubbed the Personhood Amendment, her proposal is simple in its succinctness: It states that the state constitution should be amended to define a person as including any human being from the moment of fertilization.

The implications of that statement, though, are certain to make Colorado a national battleground on the abortion issue - it could outlaw abortions and some birth control.

It's a battle Burton doesn't shy from.

"If I know what's going on and do nothing, that's not how I should live my life," she said last week, citing one of her favorite biblical verses. "I honestly feel that this is what God called me to do."

It's a calling she says she's had since she was 13.

It's also been what's guided her since an even earlier age when her mother, Debra Burton, would read inspirational stories to her and her two brothers as part of their education.

The stories were about taking on powerful institutions or standing up for what's right, stories about Martin Luther, who led the Protestant Reformation, and Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape the Nazis during World War II."