Anti-abortion backers rally outside Statehouse
The Daily Record
By MARC KOVAC Dix Capital BureauPublished:
COLUMBUS — Backers of legislation that would ban abortions within weeks of conception prayed outside the Statehouse Wednesday and rallied for the bill’s passage.
70 “Onesies” representing 70 babies aborted in Ohio every business day.
Later in the day, the group delivered stacks of baby clothes to the offices of Gov. John Kasich and lawmakers, hoping to convince them of the need to enact the long-debated Heartbeat Bill.
“We are making an appeal to heaven, because God is the one that’s going to have to do what we’re unable to do,” said Janet Porter, president of Faith2Action and vocal proponent of the legislation. “He’s going to have to move on the hearts of these legislators, and that’s what we’re counting on.”
Wednesday’s gathering marked the latest attempt by proponents to draw attention to the legislation. Over the past three years, they’ve done everything from inflating a giant heart outside the Statehouse to delivering stuffed bears with mechanisms making heartbeat sounds to lawmakers.
Proponents believe the Heartbeat Bill could serve as the vehicle to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Some abortion opponents, however, think the Heartbeat Bill goes too far and would result in legal challenges undoing other abortion-related restrictions in state law.
And groups like Planned Parenthood and others say the Heartbeat Bill is another attempt by Statehouse Republicans to further restrict women’s medical choices.
The bill passed the Ohio House last general assembly, but stalled in the Senate. It was reintroduced this session and has about 40 co-sponsors.
But the bill has not moved, and there are not indications either of the Republican-controlled chambers intends passage this session.
A group of Republicans in the House earlier launched a discharge petition, a legislative maneuver that would force a floor vote.
Rep. Matt Lynch, a Republican from Geauga County who spoke at Wednesday’s event, compared videos he’s viewed of abortions to videos of terrorists beheading hostages in the Middle East.
“They’re not dissimilar … the evil of death, of murder, being brought to an innocent life,” he said. “As a nation, as we’re aroused literally to move heaven and earth to combat this evil on the other side of the world, somehow we’re blind and we’re silent to the 20,000-plus death that occur, 70 a day, right here in the state of Ohio. We have to have the courage to understand that the moral fight against evil in the Middle East is no different than the moral fight against evil right here in the state of Ohio. That evil is abortion.”