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Christian Commentary on the Culture

Can Ohio Overcome Its Whining Pro-Abortion Democrats?

Linda Harvey

It was an historic moment.

 

On April 10, 2019, I was present in the Ohio House chamber as Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” finally achieved victory. It was signed the next day by Governor Mike DeWine. Babies with a detectable beating heart will now be protected from abortion, and that can happen with current technology as early as six weeks’ gestation. 

 

It’s a victory nine years in the making, with many trials along the way, both external to Ohio’s pro-life movement and internal. But it’s nevertheless a great achievement for long-time pro-life activists like Janet Porter, Lori Viars, Mark Harrington and supportive Republican state lawmakers. Heartbeat is now a law, praise God, and thousands of unborn babies may be saved once this law is allowed to go into effect.

 

I am so grateful to the Lord God Almighty for allowing Ohio to finally see a serious restriction on the destruction of unborn human life. Our state now joins North Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia in passing similar laws (although some have been blocked by court action). And bills are pending in Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, West Virginia, Minnesota, and Texas.

 

The ACLU has pledged to file suit to stop it, but they can’t stop the momentum in America. We are moving toward life and the gates of hell will not stop us.

 

Yet I left the Ohio House with turmoil in my soul after hearing a pro-death mob screaming in protest after the vote—“My body, my choice!”—and “We won’t go back!!”-- and after listening to ignorant, selfish speeches by pro-abortion Ohio representatives, all Democrats and mostly women.

 

I thought, "There must be better legislators in their districts than these people!" 

 

And what was truly jaw-dropping was that many female legislators had pranced proudly onto the floor that day wearing pink. Pink is the adopted color of Planned Parenthood, and these women were brazenly signaling their support for the legalized killing of more babies (see photo below).

 

Someone tell these gals that the blood of babies is not pink, by the way.

 

Our state and our country are deeply divided and a lot of the blame rests with childish, whining females.

 

Yes, they have their sob stories. 

 

But don’t we all. Don’t we all. 

 

None of them justifies harm to innocent preborn humans. For those who have traveled this road and are truly repentant, the Lord is merciful and will forgive and heal.

 

For those who are unrepentant, defiant and determined to lead others into the sin of baby murder, the divine consequences are surely going to be unpleasant.

 

Let me share with you some of the statements of these Ohio legislators, many presented as amendments, all of which were tabled.

 

Rep.Janine Boyd (D- Cleveland Heights) suggested in the Ohio House Health committee on April 9 an amendment to exempt African-American women from the Heartbeat Bill. That’s right. More black babies would be killed if this African-American Democrat, a fervent supporter of rights for women, got her way (see VIDEO, starting at 51:36 – and thanks to Mark Harrington of Created Equal for first reporting this).

 

The health committee chairman, Rep. Derek Merrin ( R- Monclova) stated his objection to the amendment and his belief that the law should be applied equally to all citizens. Good for him!

 

Rep.Stephanie Howse (D-Cleveland), leader of the Ohio legislative black caucus, proposed the same amendment during floor proceedings in the Ohio House. The “background” these women gave was the historic rape of black women starting 400 years ago when they were slaves and were raped by their masters, and couldn’t make the choice to say their bodies were their own. And they got illegal abortions. ( Where’s the documentation for that?) Howse opposed the Heartbeat Bill because she believes black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die in childbirth. 

 

So…let’s kill more babies of color in order to save a few women---allegedly. Does anyone really believe abortion is safer than birth? How self-centered and unfactual. It’s not safer for the children destroyed. The disconnect is appalling. Howse closed by implying that, by defeating the Heartbeat Bill, Ohioans would be better able to live lives of peace and prosperity.

 

Rep. Michele Lapore-Hagan (D-Youngstown), proposed an amendment for men to be required to put their DNA in a database in Ohio to track them as potential abusers or deadbeat dads. More rape culture rhetoric, but I am not buying the one-size-fits-all male bashing.

 

Rep. Allison Russo (D-Columbus) proposed an amendment that paid maternity leave be required of Ohio employers. She lamented that having a baby through an unintended pregnancy might interfere with work or for the ability of women to care for other children. 

 

Yes, those may be challenges but a human life is far more important, and to be so dismissive is the real tragedy here. Adoption is always an option while killing a child is the cheap and heartless way out. Russo related the story about her great -grandmother who died while trying to give herself an illegal abortion in 1939, and her grandfather is the one who found his mother, dead. This is a tragic tale, and there are certainly desperate situations out there, but still, the answer is not to kill the child. The reality is, the risk her great-grandmother took resulted in her children having no mom. 

 

Russo said, “Using the force of law to compel a woman is a violation of human decency.” What? I am sure the child being killed might have a different version of human decency, if we could talk to him or her.

 

And then there was Rep. Beth Liston (D- Dublin),who despite being a physician, contended that the bill is not scientific and that what she called a “clump of cells” is not yet viable human life and so is, apparently, not worth too much. She also made snarky anti-Christian comments about the bill.

 

Rep. Richard Brown (D- Canal Winchester) proposed an amendment that no funds be allocated to defend the Heartbeat Bill in court, because he thinks it’s unconstitutional. Rep. Mary Lightbody (D-Westerville) gave a speech about the trials that accompanied the illegality of abortion when she was young, and how the doctors were all males and very judgmental about prescribing contraception.

 

Sorry, Mary, I was young then too, and I unfortunately had no trouble as a young liberal obtaining contraception from a non-judgmental male doctor. And I know other women who did the same. So Mary thinks abortion would have been a form of birth control? There are many feminists who believe it’s fine to use abortion as a regular method of birth control. How appalling.

 

 More troubling speeches were given by Rep. Kent Smith (D- Euclid), and Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes (D-Akron), who suggested that because of this bill, she became a second-class citizen.

 

Other women in pink on the floor of the Ohio House on April 10, insulting unborn humans, were Rep. Juanita Brent (D- Cleveland),Rep. Jessica Miranda (D-Forest Park),Rep. Tavia Galonski (D-Akron) and Rep. Lisa Sobecki (D-Toledo).

 

Ohio babies, women and men deserve so much better than these fools as our representatives. Let’s raise up conservatives who value life to run against them in 2020.

Ohio Democrat women wear Planned Parenthood pink to Heartbeat Bill hearing. L to R: Representatives Allison Russo (Columbus); Jessica Miranda (Forest Park); Lisa Sobecki (Toledo);Tavia Galonski (Akron); Juanita Brent (Cleveland); Mary Lightbody (Westerville); and Emilia Strong Sykes (Akron).