Republicans hoping to take down both abortion and President Obama in 2012 think they have a winning issue in the debate over “personhood.”

In several states, new legislation defining human life as beginning at conception - not birth - is being voted on, making it a hot-button social issue a key factor in the election cycle.

Just this week, Republican lawmakers in Virginia passed a personhood bill in the key battleground state’s House of Delegates. And in Oklahoma, the Senate overwhelmingly gave the green light to a similar plan on Wednesday.

In Virginia, the bill still must go to the Senate. And in Oklahoma it must go before the House before coming law.

While such laws don’t exist yet - personhood legislation lost in referendums twice in Colorado and once in Mississippi since 2008 - proponents of personhood are pointing to the latest victories in Virginia and Oklahoma as proof of their progress.

And in at least a dozen states, anti-abortion activists are attempting to place such initiatives on the ballots this year.

The laws, intended to override Roe v. Wade and effectively prohibit virtually all abortions, have Democrats and pro-choice activists concerned that the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, which gives women the constitutional right to have abortions, is slowly being dismantled.