Abortion groups announce campaigns to amend Ohio state constitution

Two separate pro-abortion groups have announced that they will campaign to make abortion a “right” in the Ohio state constitution.

The first coalition, Protect Ohio Choice, is composed of the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights advocacy group. The group consists of more than 1,400 doctors who organized after the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. According to Cleveland.com, the group hopes to add a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion on the November 7, 2023 ballot.

“As physicians we cannot stand by idly as unjust court decisions and extreme laws put our patients and our ability to practice medicine at risk,” said Dr. Lauren Beene, the group’s executive director. “We are acting quickly and decisively by seeking to amend the Ohio Constitution.”

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Hours after Protect Ohio Choice made its announcement Monday, another group called Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom announced that it, too, is pursuing a constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to abortion, though it hasn’t yet stated if it is aiming for 2023 or a later date. The coalition consists of a number of pro-abortion groups, including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of Ohio, Pro-Choice Ohio, the Ohio Women’s Alliance, Preterm-Cleveland, Abortion Fund of Ohio, URGE or United for Reproductive and Gender Equity, and New Voices for Reproductive Justice.

“We must pass a referendum to expressly secure the right to reproductive freedom in our state constitution,” said J. Bennett Guess, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio. “Our approach will be inclusive, non-partisan, data-driven, research-informed, and rooted in compassion. We know that Ohioans support abortion access and that we have a clear pro-choice majority of voters. This campaign will be led by and for the people of Ohio.”

But in reality, those behind pro-abortion efforts in states like Kansas and Kentucky have stated that they manipulated and deceived voters. As Live Action News previously reported:

[Abortion activist Rachel] Sweet stated that her strategy in Kentucky was to emphasize “the idea that passing extreme restrictions impacts medical care for pregnancy complications and miscarriages.” She described this approach as “more of an empathy message” that involved “a lot more first-person storytelling.”

Yet Sweet’s message relied on false premises and deception about the reality of treatment for pregnancy complications and miscarriages – and thus misleading those she hoped to influence.

Her strategy aligns with a false media narrative that spreads myths about pro-life laws in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The truth is that induced abortion, which is the direct and intentional killing of a preborn child, is not medically necessary to treat a woman’s pregnancy complications.

Sweet also said that abortion supporters did “research to figure out the messaging that is going to work with voters,” and that “in Kansas and Kentucky, there were differences in how we deployed the message.” In Kansas, the message to voters was, “We don’t need to change anything about the constitution in Kansas. This is about the government getting involved in your personal business. We don’t need that.”

In addition, out-of-state billionaires poured a large amount of money into the pro-abortion campaigns of multiple states with ballot initiatives.

Ohio’s protections for preborn children after a heartbeat becomes detectable (typically around six weeks gestation) were indefinitely blocked by a judge in October. The state plans to appeal. Therefore, current state law protects preborn children after 22 weeks. Should voters enshrine the “right” to abortion in the state’s constitution, it would likely undo pro-life legislation currently in place. In fact, it could mean abortion would be allowed for all nine months of pregnancy, with no protections for the preborn. The extreme nature of such a ballot measure would likely be obscured from voters, given the fact that recent polling shows most Americans want abortion to be significantly restricted but still legal.

In response to these pro-abortion campaigns, Ohio Right to Life has already said that it will be launching “the largest grassroots initiative in state history” to fight for preborn children.

“Make no mistake, this will be an extreme abortion measure proposed in 2023,” said Peter Range, CEO of Ohio Right to Life. “The group proposing this measure will talk about health care, but all they care about will be abortion on demand which ends the life of an innocent human child.”

“When left with the choice of protecting babies or allowing them to be killed at nine months old during pregnancy, Ohioans will overwhelmingly choose life,” stated Michael Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life President. He continued, “the Buckeye state has repeatedly reiterated that we are undeniably pro-life, and this time will be no different. Ohio Right To Life has a presence in all 88 counties, and we are prepared to orchestrate the largest grassroots initiative in our state history, whether in 2023 or 2024.”

“Lives are on the line, and we will raise the money and exhaust every resource available to protect preborn babies,” Gonidakis emphasized. “It boggles our minds to think that some people in Ohio do not support that. We are ready and prepared to fight for the right to life in Ohio.”