ACLU and Planned Parenthood are spreading disinformation

As the leaders of national and state anti-abortion organizations, we cannot remain silent while radical proabortion interest groups fight to destroy compassionate and commonsense protections for women, children and families in Ohio.

We will lead anti-abortion Ohioans through the streets of Columbus for the second annual Ohio March for Life Oct. 6.

Why abortion amendment is bad for Ohio

Unfortunately, a proposed amendment to the Ohio State Constitution, now known as Issue 1, threatens to exploit women and children under the guise of “reproductive rights.”

Anti-abortion doctors, legal experts and parents are warning that Issue 1 is a Trojan horse for taxpayer-funded, painful late-term abortions, that seeks to destroy parental rights, while eliminating basic health and safety regulations for women. This includes Ohio laws requiring abortion clinics to have ambulatory surgical facility licenses, or requiring them to have transfer agreements with hospitals within 30 miles.

Walking the streets of Ohio, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who supports any of that. Sadly, the ACLU doesn’t care to explain that their fight to permanently alter the Ohio constitution defies public consensus.

In efforts to transform Ohio into an abortion haven, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood have deployed disinformation and fearmongering campaigns to obscure what the amendment really entails.

When is viability?

These special interest groups say the amendment would allow abortion only until “viability.” Still they refuse to define when viability is determined.

One of Planned Parenthood’s chief medical officers, Colleen Mcnicholas, admitted during sworn testimony before the U.S. Congress that “viability is a complicated medical construct. There is no particular gestational age. There are some pregnancies in which a fetus will never be viable.”

In other words, abortionists are left to decide the timeline of viability, despite the fact that they are monetarily incentivized to perform more abortions.

Similarly, notorious late-term abortionist, Dr. Warren Hern determines viability purely based on “a woman’s willingness to carry it” – even if her reason to abort is simply that the unborn child is a different sex than what the mother wants, for example.

Amendment would not protect Ohio women.

The amendment’s supporters disingenuously claim that it’s necessary for women’s health and safety.

But the amendment was drafted specifically to eliminate basic standards protecting women such as informed consent requirements that ensure women are seen by a licensed doctor with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in case something goes wrong.

Some experts likewise warn that by using the word “individual” instead of “woman,” the amendment intentionally nullifies Ohio’s parental notification and consent requirements. This could make it possible for a minor girl to have an abortion without her parents’ consent – and opens the door to interested third parties or predators coercing her into having an abortion.

Sadly, the “pro-woman” proponents of the amendment refuse to admit these truths.

Our fears for Ohio have become a reality in Michigan. In November 2022, Michigan pro-abortion activists passed a similar amendment called Prop 3.

Less than a year after its approval, its supporters are openly admitting they want to end parental consent protections explicitly stating, “we must repeal Michigan’s outdated parental consent law.”

In the abortion rights-controlled Michigan House and Senate, they have already proposed the repeal of virtually all limitations on abortion up until birth, including gruesome and inhumane partial birth abortions, as well as repeal of any protections for taxpayers from funding abortions.

These aggressive attacks on the health and safety of women and children in Ohio deeply concern those who have spent decades tirelessly advocating and fighting on behalf of women and their unborn children.

Because of an aggressive disinformation campaign, many Ohioans have not yet realized the enormity of the threat Issue 1 poses. Now more than ever, we need everyone to step up and redouble their efforts for women and for life.

Aaron Baer is a native of Warren, and the president of Ohio-based Center for Christian Virtue. Jeanne Mancini has served as president of the March for Life since 2012. Peter Range is the executive director of Ohio Right to Life.