Ohio pro-life leaders are speaking out as their state is targeted heavily by the abortion industry — and they are calling for help to educate the public about an August 8th special election which could block a pro-abortion ballot initiative set to come before Ohio voters in November.
Mark Harrington, founder of Created Equal, told Live Action News that with Ohio being the birthplace of the pro-life Heartbeat Bill, turning the state pro-abortion would be the “crown jewel of the pro-abortion movement.” As such, he is calling for national help to get out the vote in favor of State Issue 1, which seeks to increase the threshold by which the Constitution of Ohio may be amended from a simple majority (50% + 1) to 60%. If passed, the measure has the potential to block a pro-abortion ballot initiative which would determine if killing preborn children can be added as a constitutional “right.”
“If you look at the polling, we are in the mid to low 50 percent, but we need to increase to at least a sixty percent threshold. So, I am a little skeptical. It’s too easy to manipulate people with misleading pro-abortion ads because they control so much of the avenues of messaging,” Harrington said.
Ohio Issue 1 abortion measure (Washington Post)
Ballot Initiative
In July, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights submitted almost 496,000 valid signatures to put their pro-abortion amendment before voters in November. According to Ohio Right to Life, the group was “formed by the ACLU of Ohio, Abortion Fund of Ohio, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Ohio Women’s Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Preterm-Cleveland [an abortion business responsible for women’s abortion-related deaths], Pro-Choice Ohio, and URGE. OFRF has hired an out-of-state General Counsel named Mission Control, Inc.”
The measure groups abortion, contraception, and miscarriage care together, stating, “[e]very individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.” It adds that the “State shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either an individual’s voluntary exercise of this right or a person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individuals’ health…”
In other words, abortionists will be protected by the amendment.
“Once Roe was overturned, we went directly to fighting a ballot initiative in Michigan which went down in defeat. We are now zero for six, and I thought we are in trouble,” Harrington told Live Action News.”We were late in the game and there are a lot of states like Michigan that are in the middle ground; if they go to the ballot we will have our hands full. Ohio is a red state — I think we have a better shot here,” Harrington claimed.
“A ‘yes’ vote on Issue 1 is the most important vote in our state’s history,” Janet (Folger) Porter, Founder and President of Faith2Action told Live Action News. Her website has encouraged pro-lifers to speak to their churches to spread the word about the August 8th election.
Porter, who worked to pass Ohio’s Heartbeat Law, claimed that if pro-lifers do not vote ‘yes’ on August 8th, “Ohio could become New York with abortion until birth and no parental rights whatsoever.”
What Can the Pro-life Community Do?
Harrington expressed concern that there had not been a “sounding of the trumpet in the pro-life movement” about the upcoming August vote. He told Live Action News that “if we do not win in Ohio, we will be fighting a dozen more in 2024 and could take some serious defeats in next couple of years.”
Still, according to a report published by Catholic News Agency (CNA), early voting in favor of increasing the threshold to 60% is off to a good start. “Based on numbers provided through the secretary of state’s website, the referendum to change the constitutional amendment process has already surpassed 285,000 early votes as of July 25, which is the most recent update. Early voting began on July 11 and the turnout has far outpaced the early voting numbers from the August statewide primary election of 2022,” CNA wrote.
When asked what pro-lifers in other states could do, Harrington said, “My message would be – come to Ohio and if you cannot come, work remotely to do what you can to impact the vote here. In addition, we need to mobilize our base and that starts with the churches.”
Harrington added, “While we need to raise a lot more money, if we do not energize and motivate our base to come out and beat this thing, we could lose. It’s got to be about abortion, so it is critical to get the church out to vote. This is a base election, and we must get them out.”
Ballot Measures Proposed in Several States
Multiple pro-abortion ballot initiatives have already been proposed for the 2023 and 2024 election cycles in an effort to thwart pro-life victories gained after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Live Action News previously documented that the Maryland General Assembly recently decided to allow voters to determine whether or not to enshrine the intentional and direct killing of preborn humans as a ‘right’ in the state’s constitution.
In Florida, where the state’s six-week pro-life protections are still being fought in the courts, abortion advocates are raising millions to back a pro-abortion ballot measure for the 2024 election, which would essentially codify abortion if approved.
“The Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion is sponsored by the political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom,” WESH.com reported. It reads, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
“The effort is being funded mostly by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, which has already raised nearly $5 million since April and spent much of that money funding the petition drive,” WESH.com also wrote.
In Missouri, lawmakers are watching Ohio to decide whether they too will raise the threshold for ammending the Constitution in their state.
According to Ballotpedia.org, “On November 5, 2024, voters in New York will decide on a constitutional amendment to prohibit the denial of rights to an individual based on their ‘pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy,’ along with other classes like ethnicity, disability, age, and sex.” In addition, “Voters in Maryland will decide on an amendment to establish a right to reproduction freedom, defined to include abortion, in the state constitution at the general election in 2024.”
“In South Dakota, the organization Dakotans For Health is collecting signatures to get an abortion rights measure before voters in 2024…The proposed constitutional amendment says that South Dakota ‘may not regulate a pregnant woman’s abortion decision and its effectuation’ before the end of the first trimester,” The Hill reported.
“Groups in Arizona and Missouri also are in the process of getting abortion rights ballot measures in front of voters next year,” The Hill wrote.
In Iowa, “lawmakers were considering a proposed state constitutional amendment that would ‘declare that this Constitution does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.’ To come before voters, the amendment needs to be approved in two legislative sessions in a row. It was approved last legislative session,” The Hill added.
“We are good when it comes to representative government and legislatures. But when you put it up for a vote, all the advantages go to them. If they win in Ohio the pro-life movement will seriously have to take a strategic retreat for a time to work in states where we can hold the line,” Harrington suggested.
“But, the battle is not lost – there are some good signs, we can win it but we need all pro-life activists to jump in,” Harrington also said.
