By Dave Andrusko
Pro-abortionists won Round #1 yesterday when Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced in a letter to petitioners
“I hereby certify that petitioners submitted 495,938 total valid signatures on behalf of the proposed statewide initiative.”
They needed approximately 414,000 valid signatures to qualify to be on the ballot this November.
According to CNN’s Terence Burlij and Jack Forrest, the proposed amendment would ensure “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s reproductive decisions.”
By contrast, Ohio Right to Life, NRLC’s state affiliate, explained the dramatic impact of this constitutional amendment, should it pass. For example, the ballot measure would enshrine abortion until birth and remove all protections for the preborn—including a parent’s ability to stop their child from being pressured into an abortion.
Ohio voters will first vote on “Issue 1” in an August 8th special election. “Voters will decide whether to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution from the current simple majority to 60%,” Burlij and Forrest report.
According to Ohio Right to Life, a Vote for Issue 1 is a Vote For:
- Requiring 60% of voter approval before passing an amendment.
- No longer allowing half of Ohioans to be ignored in the petition process.
- Eliminating loopholes allowing fraudulent petitioners excess time to collect signatures.
- Restoring trust & confidence in our state’s guiding document, making it no longer vulnerable to the political winds of our day.
“Knowing the serious danger of this amendment and that these out-of-state special interest groups still have millions to spend to get it passed, it is even more imperative that every pro-life Ohioan votes yes on Issue 1 this August to ensure that our Constitution, our preborn, and our families are protected,” said Ohio Right to Life’s CEO, Peter Range.
Range continued, “This extreme anti-life, anti-parent amendment from the ACLU provides no protections for the preborn through all nine months of pregnancy and attacks a parent’s right even to know if their child is seeking an abortion or gender surgery. Based upon the reality that the ACLU barely qualified for the ballot, despite spending millions of dollars, it is clear that a majority of Ohioans do not want this extreme amendment. We ask all Ohioans, who love life, to join us in rejecting this extreme amendment.”
“The very integrity of Ohio’s constitution hangs in the balance,” Range concluded. “The abortion lobby is currently attempting to enshrine abortion up until birth with zero restrictions in Ohio’s constitution this November. That is unacceptable and goes against the very nature of our nation’s principles. Our state’s founding document was created to protect Ohioans’ liberty and freedoms, not take them away. Enshrining abortion removes the most foundational right that any of us have—the right to life. We cannot allow this to be stripped away. We must vote YES on Issue 1 on August 8, 2023.”