Ohio witnessed a 19% increase in reported abortions last year, a phenomenon which came after major pro-life establishment entities in the state quietly opposed legislation to abolish abortion.
The number of induced abortions officially reported to the state government increased from over 18,000 two years ago to roughly 22,000 last year, a phenomenon driven largely by more residents of other states murdering their babies in Ohio. The report did not count Ohio residents who themselves obtained abortions in other states or outside of the formal medical system.
The state government revealed that nearly half of reported abortions were conducted by curettage, under which the preborn child is scraped out of the uterus with a curette, followed by mifepristone, a substance used in abortion pills to block a pregnancy hormone called progesterone. The increasing number of self-managed abortions obtained outside of the medical system frequently involve abortion pills.
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis issued a press release mourning the abortion statistics as “heartbreaking” and grieving that Ohio is now “a destination state for aborting babies.”
Yet an exclusive report from The Sentinel published last summer revealed that a member trustee at Ohio Right to Life was instrumental in lobbying against the Abolition of Abortion in Ohio Act, which would have protected “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,” thereby immediately abolishing abortion, according to a draft of the bill provided to The Sentinel.
The report from The Sentinel also revealed that an official with the Center for Christian Virtue, another leading Ohio pro-life establishment entity, had persuaded a Republican lawmaker to refrain from sponsoring the legislation, according to an audio recording of a phone call between the lawmaker and End Abortion Ohio President Austin Beigel obtained by The Sentinel.
Beigel contended in remarks to The Sentinel about the newly released abortion statistics that the increase in reported abortions was attributable to the activities of the pro-life establishment last year, during which Republicans maintained supermajorities in the Ohio General Assembly.
“This tragic increase underscores the ongoing failure to protect our most vulnerable neighbors,” Beigel commented. “While we are dismayed by these heartbreaking statistics, we must also call out the hypocrisy within major pro-life organizations that have opposed efforts to abolish abortion in the state. It is not sufficient to lament the consequences of abortion while actively opposing the very efforts that could end this injustice.”
Beigel added that End Abortion Ohio remains committed to “the biblical mandate to defend life and seek justice for all” by reintroducing the Abolition of Abortion in Ohio Act next year.
The abortions reported in the latest state government statistics largely occurred before voters decisively approved a ballot measure that enshrined abortion in the Ohio state constitution, a decision which voters in several other states dominated by Republicans will have this fall. The impact of the new amendment is expected to be shown in the Ohio abortion statistics reported next year.
