Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is urging voters in the state to reject a radical abortion measure on the ballot in November.
DeWine and his wife, Ohio first lady Fran DeWine, deliver the message in an ad by Protect Women Ohio released Wednesday—the same day that early voting began on Ohio Issue 1, the Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion Initiative.
Pushed by groups such as the ACLU of Ohio and Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the constitutional amendment would ban the state from interfering with “reproductive decisions,” including abortion—effectively enshrining the “right” to abortion into the Ohio Constitution.
Ohio law bans abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected, but a judge blocked the heartbeat law, meaning that abortions are allowed in the state until 22 weeks of gestation.
“Everywhere we go, voters tell us they’re confused about Issue 1, so Fran and I have carefully studied it,” DeWine says in the Protect Women Ohio ad.
His wife warns: “Issue 1 would allow an abortion at any time during a pregnancy, and it would deny parents the right to be involved when their daughter is making the most important decision of her life.”
DeWine’s plea draws on conflicting sentiment in Ohio when it comes to abortion, but pushes voters to recognize that the ballot measure is too radical.
“I know Ohioans are divided on the issue of abortion,” he says, “but whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, Issue 1 is just not right for Ohio.”
“Issue 1 just goes too far,” Fran DeWine concludes.
Proponents of Issue 1, such as Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, predict that “if Issue 1 doesn’t pass in Ohio, abortion access will be banned—no exceptions—and women who miscarry could be denied emergency care.”
Opponents with Protect Women Ohio say that’s patently false.
“The practice of late-term abortion is so barbaric that Republicans and Democrats agree it should be banned,” said Molly Smith, Protect Women Ohio board member. “The groups behind Issue 1, including the ACLU, clearly missed the memo: abortion-on-demand up until birth is too extreme for Ohioans. Period.”
“Issue 1 poses risks to Ohioans of all ages,” added Barb Driehaus, vice president of communications for Democrats for Life, Ohio Chapter. “It removes all protections for the unborn, allowing for late-term abortion when the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, and puts teenagers at risk. Democrats cannot support these radical measures.”
“By repeatedly using the word ‘individual,’ never ‘adult,’ ‘woman’ or ‘person over 18,’ Issue 1 allows minors to legally obtain abortions without parental consent or even parental notification,” Driehaus noted. “An abuser could coerce the minor victim, and Issue 1 will make it easier to cover up the crime. Even those who favor expanded abortion laws ought to vote ‘NO’ on Issue 1.”
The DeWine ad comes on the heels of another Protect Women Ohio ad, which highlights that late-term abortionist Martin Haskell had given $100,000 to one of the groups heavily pushing Issue 1; namely, Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights.
Haskell is notorious within the pro-life movement for his paper describing, in gruesome detail, how he performs partial birth abortions by inserting scissors into the back of the baby’s head while the baby’s body is partially outside of the mother.
His description has been repeatedly read by members of Congress to demonstrate the horrors of such a procedure, which was banned through the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003:
With a lower [fetal] extremity in the vagina, the surgeon uses his fingers to deliver the opposite lower extremity, then the torso, the shoulders and the upper extremities. The skull lodges at the internal cervical os [the opening to the uterus]. Usually, there is not enough dilation for it to pass through. The fetus is oriented dorsum or spine up.
At this point, the right-handed surgeon slides the fingers of the left hand along the back of the fetus and “hooks” the shoulders of the fetus with the index and ring fingers (palm down) … [T]he surgeon takes a pair of blunt curved Metzenbaum scissors in the right hand. He carefully advances the tip, curved down, along the spine and under his middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull under the tip of his middle finger …
[T]he surgeon then forces the scissors into the base of the skull or into the foramen magnum. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening. The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole and evacuates the skull contents.
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