Ohio citizens will cast ballots next Tuesday on a measure that could enshrine abortion in the state constitution, a vote which comes more than one year after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Ohio Issue 1, the Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion Initiative, will grant citizens an opportunity to establish a state constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to" decisions about abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments. The measure would allow the state to restrict abortion after “fetal viability” but disallow a prohibition if “in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician” the abortion is “necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
Current abortion laws in Ohio regulate the lethal procedure after twenty-two weeks gestation; a six-week regulation previously greenlit by Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine entered into force last year after the overturn of Roe v. Wade but was later placed on hold by a judge. Ohio law exempts pregnant women from prosecution related to violations of state abortion law, even if the women willfully decide to murder their preborn children.
Lizzie Marbach, the former communications director for Ohio Right to Life who was dismissed amid disagreements about the group’s incremental approach to opposing abortion, said in comments to The Sentinel that the ballot measure would “enshrine state-sanctioned murder into our state’s constitution, making abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy.”
“Instead of recognizing and protecting our God-given rights like a constitution is supposed to do, Issue 1 will turn our constitution into a wicked decree,” she remarked. “Enshrining abortion into our founding document spits in the face of God by calling good that which is evil.”
Organizations in the pro-life movement have created an entity called Protect Women Ohio to lead the public campaign against the ballot measure. Communications from the group have emphasized the radical nature of legalizing late-term abortions, as well as the assertion that the measure constitutes “an all-out assault on parental rights.”
Marbach contended to The Sentinel that the pro-life movement in Ohio has wavered in their opposition to the ballot measure by presenting only secularized arguments to voters.
“From the beginning, the pro-life establishment has refused to put their trust in God to defeat this initiative. Instead, they have relied on cowardly tactics: from framing this as only a parental rights issue, to Governor DeWine now saying he will add back rape and incest exceptions if we vote no, to pausing all efforts to even pass pro-life legislation to protect the preborn,” she commented. “They have compromised every step of the way rather than simply standing strong, trusting that God is greater than any polls or talking points.”
Austin Beigel, the president of End Abortion Ohio and a current candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives, said in comments to The Sentinel that lawmakers should instead enact the Abolition of Abortion in Ohio Act to “recognize the personhood of preborn human beings in this state and establish for them the equal protection of the law.” Entities such as Ohio Right to Life and the Center for Christian Virtue have lobbied against the legislation, which would criminalize abortion for all parties involved, as previously revealed in an exclusive report from The Sentinel.
“According to the Fourteenth Amendment, states do not possess the ability to deprive persons of the right to life without due process,” Beigel said. “The Ohio General Assembly should recognize this fact and acknowledge the personhood of preborn children.”
