A board member at Ohio Right to Life who also serves as a senior Republican aide has emerged as a lobbyist against a bill to abolish abortion in the state of Ohio, while the Center for Christian Virtue worked to persuade a Republican lawmaker to renege on filing the bill.
The lobbying efforts from major pro-life groups in Ohio pressured Republican lawmakers to refrain from sponsoring the bill, which seeks to criminalize abortion for all parties involved.
Mike McGuire, a member trustee at Ohio Right to Life and a policy advisor for Ohio Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens, was appointed to the latter position as twenty-two Republican lawmakers cut a deal with Democrats to support Stephens for the speakership rather than the more conservative Ohio Republican State Representative Derek Merrin. End Abortion Ohio President Austin Beigel, whose group is working to file the Abolition of Abortion in Ohio Act, told The Sentinel that McGuire has appeared at several of his lobbying meetings to oppose the bill.
The bill would protect “the lives of preborn persons with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the lives of born persons by repealing provisions that permit willful prenatal homicide or assault,” according to a draft of the legislation provided to The Sentinel.
Conventional bills advanced by pro-life establishment organizations contain provisions that grant blanket immunity to abortive mothers, even if they willfully decide to murder their children. The immunity provisions allow the continued widespread use of abortion pills, even in states which now heavily regulate surgical abortion or purport to have banned abortion entirely.
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis endorsed a letter last year informing all lawmakers in the United States that they should “not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women” for abortions. Leaders at several other pro-life establishment groups, including National Right to Life, March for Life Action, and Susan B. Anthony List, also signed the letter.
The Abolition of Abortion in Ohio Act, which was drafted by Foundation to Abolish Abortion President Bradley Pierce, additionally says that “acknowledging the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from the beginning of biological development to natural death” is consistent with the United States Constitution.
The revelation that a senior Ohio Right to Life official has worked to oppose the bill to establish equal protection for preborn children comes after the organization fired communications director Elizabeth Marbach over disagreements about social media use, which culminated in a viral exchange with Ohio Republican Congressman Max Miller about Marbach sharing the gospel from her personal social media account, as exclusively reported last week by The Sentinel. Emily Moreno Miller, the wife of Max Miller, is a fellow member trustee at Ohio Right to Life.
Ohio Republican State Representative Bill Dean had originally committed to sponsoring the Abolition of Abortion in Ohio Act. The Sentinel obtained an audio recording of a phone call last week in which Dean told Beigel that he could no longer support the bill. When pressed by Beigel, the lawmaker admitted that the Center for Christian Virtue had asked him not to introduce the bill before a November election in which Ohio voters will decide whether or not to amend the state constitution to allow for increased abortion legality.
The Center for Christian Virtue calls itself the “largest Christian public policy organization” in the state of Ohio and asserts that they have “earned a reputation for being fearless and strategic, advancing solutions for the biggest problems facing America.”
“Well-meaning Ohioans are giving their hard-earned money to groups like Ohio Right to Life and the Center for Christian Virtue expecting that these organizations are using it to end abortion in our state, but the reality is that behind closed doors these pro-life groups are actively opposing the very legislation that their own donors believe they are fighting to pass,” Beigel asserted in remarks provided to The Sentinel. “They take your well-intentioned donation and use it for the exact opposite of what you think you donated toward.”
One Republican member of the Ohio legislature also confirmed to The Sentinel that the deal with Democrats to establish Stephens in the speakership involved Stephens committing to oppose a Republican effort that would have increased the difficulty of amending the state’s constitution, which would have rendered the abortion legality amendment more difficult to pass.
Republicans attempted to pass a resolution in February that would have placed a referendum to increase the difficulty of amending the state constitution on a May ballot. Stephens “intentionally skipped” the original deadline to pass the resolution, according to the Republican lawmaker, forcing Republicans to pass a Senate resolution that placed the question on a special election ballot in August, an effort which voters rejected two weeks ago. The source said that the delay presented Democrats with “months extra to raise their money nationally” to defeat the effort.
The Sentinel contacted Ohio Right to Life and the Center for Christian Virtue, as well as Stephens and Dean, for comment. This article will be updated with any response.
