The annual gridiron contest between Ohio and Michigan is a cherished, intense rivalry, and every year, the people of Ohio cheer on their team, hoping the Buckeyes capture that victory.
This year, however, there’s a much more important contest between Michigan and Ohio. Will Ohio cave in to pro-abortion forces and pass Issue 1 on November 7th, or will we rise above Michigan, where a similar, deadly measure passed last year?
Unlike Michigan, will Ohio support life, defeat abortion and vote NO on Ohio Issue 1?
The measure in Michigan, Prop 3, passed by over 56% last November and now enshrines abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in the Michigan state constitution. Giddy Democrats in Michigan are busy orchestrating the aftermath, sweeping away parental consent options, and ensuring there are no obstacles to ending lives of unborn children at any stage of pregnancy, even barring adequate health and safety measures.
Since the measure is now in the Michigan constitution, there’s nothing to stop extreme regulations from taking effect. And while they’re at it, Michigan Democrats are even blocking attempts through amendments to unmask those who coerce women to have abortions. Sex traffickers or child predators often use abortion to destroy evidence of their crimes.
No, in Michigan, it’s all abortion, all the time (aka “reproductive freedom”), including government- ensured (and likely taxpayer-funded) rights to contraception, sterilization, infertility treatment and so on for any individual.
That’s the term used in Prop 3—“individual.”
So let’s compare Ohio’s Issue 1, up for vote this November. Our measure curiously has similar language, barring any “interference” by government with “reproductive freedom” for any “individual.” And the deliberate choice of this wording by the sponsors (ACLU, Planned Parenthood, “LGBTQ” groups) brings up at least two red flags.
One, instead of “individual,” why not say “woman”? Or female? Only females can get pregnant, after all. Is this another leftist attempt to establish a new legal “reality,” that biological women can pretend to be men? This would allow these “pregnant men” to get “needed” abortions-- again, probably taxpayer-funded.
Two, an “individual” is a person of no specified age. So, not only will the state bypass parents to guarantee that 12-year-old females can receive abortions without parental consent, these children will also be guaranteed confidential contraception as well as any sterilization procedure they might want, minus parent involvement. What child might want that? It turns out that a growing number of both boys and girls who have been wrongfully persuaded (often at school) they should live as the opposite sex may want cross-sex hormone medication, a treatment which is highly lucrative for children’s hospitals, Big Pharma, Planned Parenthood’s new product line, etc.
And that medication causes permanent sterility—“chemical castration.” But Ohio’s left, just like Michigan’s insane Democrats, dismiss the horrific long-term consequences in the lives of our children.
Let’s just acknowledge that this parental bypass is already in play in Ohio (and it’s way past time to bring it to a halt). Cleveland’s health department (Cuyahoga County Board of Health) proudly proclaims on its sexual health services page that they serve anyone age 13 and over without parental consent. At Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, minor patients over age 13 are asked if they want their own personal MyChart account, with parents not authorized to see their medical treatment records.
And let’s think about how courts might interpret “not interfering” with “decisions about contraception.” Ohio currently has a law mandating that sex education emphasize abstinence until marriage, also giving students details about the harm of teen sexual activity. If Issue 1 passes, this law will surely be challenged to obliterate the abstinence requirement and usher in obscene and dangerous “comprehensive sexuality education” which is often sponsored by Planned Parenthood (conflict of interest), advocates abortion and details to middle schoolers the process of having anal sex “safely” with condoms. I am not kidding.
Some Ohio school districts are flouting the law already (Columbus City Schools teaches Planned Parenthood’s Get Real to middle schoolers, e.g.).
Do we want to wipe out the voice of authentic abstinence instruction in Ohio?
To see the exact wording of the Ohio measure and some helpful commentary, go HERE. The crucial point is that if misguided moderates or liberals vote in favor of this Ohio ballot language.....“Every individual has the right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions...” (including contraception, abortion, fertility treatment, etc. ) and that, “the state shall not directly or indirectly, burden, penalize or interfere” with these decisions, you’ve just given a blank check to those who are desperate to sexualize our middle and high schoolers and bypass parents along the way.
You’ve just enabled the groomers to have their way, with government backing.
You’ve just helped write a death sentence to thousands of unborn human beings.
This is what Michigan did. Now, we know there are many thoughtful pro-life people in Michigan. Even the Wolverine coach, Jim Harbaugh, openly proclaimed his pro-life convictions in July 2022, to the outrage of the mainstream media. Yes, many in Michigan are heartbroken over the outcome of Prop 3, but they were outnumbered by the knee-jerk left in Detroit metro, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Flint and elsewhere.
The campaign in Michigan to defeat the abortion measure was outspent over 2 to 1, with backing from far-left billionaires, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and others—the same crowd backing Ohio’s Issue 1. The only thing that might have stopped the Michigan measure is a frank explanation of the sweeping, anti-family impact of the ballot language, and a more clear plea for the lives that will be lost.
Their measure and Ohio’s Issue 1 both allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Here’s how both efforts ensure that outcome (while trying to fool their less-than-informed supporters). They use the usual “abortion until fetal viability” guarantee. After that, abortions are only performed to “protect the life AND HEALTH of the mother.” That’s the get-out-jail-free card because “HEALTH” has always included “mental health.” That includes, “I’m too stressed to have this child,” “I’m too young and I have my education to consider,” “My loser boyfriend just left me and I’m not having his &$#@ baby!!” “ I’m being pressured to do this,” and so on.
The Michigan measure actually used the term “mental health” in their list of exceptions. The Ohio measure simply uses the word “health” but history shows how this exception is applied.
And to address the deceptions of the left, yes, late term abortions DO happen. Do not believe the lie that they don’t. Go HERE to watch video testimony from a survivor. It’s tragic, but abortions of fully viable children, with potentially adoptive parents lined up who would welcome such babies, have been performed in this state.
Mark Harrington, president and founder of Ohio-based Created Equal, has some thoughts about the Michigan pro-life campaign, since their organization participated in that state’s fight. Why did the pro-life side lose and what can Ohio learn from that? He says that opposition to Prop 3 in Michigan started late and was plagued with in-fighting and poor messaging. They also received little national support in a state where Dems control state government.
Ohio is a different animal, he observes, and not only are we a mostly red state, we started earlier and are better organized. (Created Equal is running the statewide door-to-door campaign. To get involved go to: createdequal.org/issue1).
Ohio can do better than Michigan. We can show that we actually get the quarterback sneak the left is trying here. AND WE WILL STOP THEM.
In the minds of most Democrat leaders and their hard left backers these days, it is the woman—oops, I mean “individual”—who determines the worth of that child’s life.
Live? Or die? For that child: thumbs up? Or thumbs down? This is what “freedom” means to the pro- aborts—freedom for females to make an inhumane decision, to fail to rise to the occasion and be a compassionate human, sustaining life when they have the power to do so.
Ohio, let’s be a red state. Stand for life! While they need our prayers, let Michigan be blue if they must, but keep their contempt for life and children on their side of the border.
In Ohio this November, vote NO on Issue 1.
