Pro-Life Movement Seeks Buckeye State Rebound

While most of the national attention in November’s off-year elections is on the contests in Virginia, a handful of other states also have consequential choices to make. One of those is Ohio, which will decide whether or not to enshrine a virtually unlimited right to abortion in the state’s constitution.

The official title of Issue 1 is the “Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion Initiative.” If passed, it would be the first constitutional amendment in any state to create a right to so-called “reproductive decisions.”

After an effort to keep the amendment off the ballot fell short earlier this year, pro-abortion advocates are optimistic that they can achieve a major win in a state that has trended rightward in recent years. Pro-lifers, meanwhile, are optimistic they can rebound and still protect the unborn.

As AMAC Action has noted, the ballot measure is dangerous in part because it deceptively includes language pertaining to the right to abortion alongside four other “rights”—“contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, and miscarriage care”—each of which are already permitted in the state of Ohio.

If Issue 1 were to pass later this fall, AMAC Action said, it “would write Planned Parenthood’s provision of services into the [state] Constitution with special protections.”

Among the most severe concerns surrounding the measure is its ambiguous treatment of fetal viability and the “life of the mother” standards. Though the measure does state that abortion “may be prohibited after fetal viability,” it goes on to declare that abortions may “in no case” be prohibited if a physician deems it necessary for the mother’s life or “health.”

The term “health” is purposely undefined so as to fool voters and create an unlimited right to abortion-on-demand. “This means that any law the Legislature attempts to pass protecting a viable unborn child can be disregarded by an abortion provider by simply stating the abortion was necessary for any interpretation of the word ‘health,’” AMAC Action has explained.

“Issue 1 makes the Ohio Legislature powerless to attempt to protect the life of a viable child. Issue 1 transfers the legal authority to determine viability solely to the treating physician”—giving abortionists the sole discretion to determine whether or not an unborn child is “viable” or if the mother’s “health” is a legitimate cause for performing an abortion.

With Issue 1, the stakes for unborn children and pro-life Ohioans are historically high—and as early voting begins, pro-life organizations are gearing up for a heated battle, which includes ramping up get-out-the-vote efforts and launching a series of TV ads targeting the left’s abortion-on-demand extremism.

One such ad, sponsored by Protect Women Ohio, airs Joe Biden’s previous comments in support of restrictions on late-term abortion and highlights polling indicating that 80 percent of both Republicans and Democrats oppose abortion in the third trimester.

This messaging appears to be politically effective among key voting demographics. Additional polling indicates more than 70 percent of voters, regardless of party, believe that abortion should be restricted to the first three months of pregnancy. Additionally, only 10 percent of voters support the left’s position of abortion up until the moment of birth.

Protect Women Ohio is also running a powerful ad that targets Planned Parenthood’s historical ties with white supremacists and eugenicists. “Black babies in Ohio are five times more likely to be aborted than white babies,” the ad’s narrator states. The ad concludes with footage of a black Columbus, Ohio, pastor telling his congregation, “You can’t pray one way and vote another.”

The group has also circulated a video of an OBGYN physician explaining why voters should vote no on the ballot measure. “I’ve been an OBGYN physician for 39 years,” Dr. Kathleen Lutter states in the video, before dismissing the abortion industry’s advertisements and marketing content as “an insult to me and to the women that I serve every day.”

She continues: “OBGYNs have two patients to care for during pregnancy: mom and baby.”

“Their lies won’t work on me, and they shouldn’t work on you either,” Dr. Lutter concludes.

Another organization taking aim at the ballot measure is “See the Language,” which has launched a website that includes a red-lined PDF of the proposed amendment that spells out precisely how dangerous the measure would be for unborn babies and the preservation of parental rights.

Earlier this year, Ohio voters struck down a different “Issue 1” ballot measure that would have made it more difficult to pass abortion-related constitutional amendments—a result widely seen as a win for pro-abortion activists. According to NBC News, the inclusion of another “Issue 1” measure this fall could be cause for confusion among voters, and could allow pro-life groups to make their case against the measure before Election Day more effectively.

As Ohioans prepare to head to the polls to vote on the future of abortion in the Buckeye State, they should ensure they know what the proposed amendment would mean for them, their families, their children, and the sanctity of life.

Early voting is already underway, and the full text of the measure can be viewed here.

Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.