By Dave Andrusko
Federal District Court Judge Timothy Black
That a federal judge would issue a preliminary injunction blocking Ohio’s Down Syndrome Unborn Baby Protection Act law from taking effect on March 23 is about as surprising as the sun rising in the East.
What is surprising is that everyone missed that Federal District Court Judge Timothy Black (appointed by President Obama) is “a former director and then president of Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati,” according to Paula Westwood, Executive Director, Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati .
Westwood posted a section from Black’s biography submitted to the U.S. Senate (reproduced below) in which in addition to being a member of the Cowan Lake Sailing Association, Black lists being Director Planned Parenthood Assn. of Cincinnati (1986-1989) and its President (1988).
Westwood notes that there are times when judges, federal or otherwise, recuse themselves from cases to avoid even the slightest hint of bias – but pro-abortion Judge Black, she points out, chose not do so.
The Toledo Blade’s Jim Provance reports that among other things in his decision, Judge Black wrote “the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that it would interfere with a woman’s right under the law to seek an abortion prior to the viability of the fetus.”
The plaintiffs include Planned Parenthood of Ohio, an abortionist, and three abortion clinics located in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton. Reps. Sarah LaTourette and Derek Merrin sponsored HB 214 in the House.
Last year while SB 164 was being debated in the Senate, the Columbus Dispatch’s Megan Henry quoted Sen. Frank LaRose, the bill’s sponsor, who said, “To me, this a matter of medical ethics,” adding “It’s a matter of what kind of society do we want to have here in the state of Ohio.”
As the bill was working its way through the House, Rep. Sarah LaTourette told the Toledo Blade the bill ends the lethal discrimination against Down syndrome children in the womb.
“I continue to say that this bill is about so much more than abortion,” Rep. LaTourette told Provance.
“I truly believe that it’s about discriminating against some of our most vulnerable, discriminating against an unborn child simply because they might have a Down syndrome diagnosis. That’s something that I find absolutely unacceptable.”