The citizens of Ohio are being bullied by the pro-abortion lobby and its judicial allies.
One Democratic judge doesn’t have the power to prevent Ohio from protecting the unborn.
O n June 24 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its most consequential decision in decades when it overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Writing for the majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, Justice Samuel Alito stated clearly and unequivocally what honest legal scholars have been saying for 49 years: “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.”
The damaging consequences that Justice Alito is referring to include, first and foremost, the slaughter of more than 63 million tiny human beings in the womb since Roe was decided in 1973. Saint Theresa of Calcutta did not mince words in her condemnation of this blight on the American judicial landscape when she once noted that the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe had “deformed a great nation.”
It should come as no surprise, then, that on the morning of June 24, when the Court finally recognized that there was no guaranteed right to an abortion in the U.S. Constitution and the issue rightfully returned to the states where it would be decided by representatives of the people, there was much rejoicing among the pro-life community in Ohio. From Cleveland to Cincinnati, from Athens to Toledo, the jubilation could be felt across the state.
Ohio has been at the forefront of the pro-life movement for more than 50 years. From the moment abortion was legalized, Ohio pro-life warriors began their crusade to end the heinous practice. Whether peacefully praying outside abortion mills, lobbying legislators, or assisting women faced with unplanned pregnancies, Ohio pro-lifers have always been tenacious and unyielding in their desire to fight for the unborn. Today, there are six abortion facilities in the state, but over 200 pregnancy resource centers.
Within an hour of the Dobbs announcement, Ohio attorney general Dave Yost filed an emergency motion in federal court asking a judge to dissolve the order that had prevented Ohio’s “heartbeat law” from being enforced. The law, which was signed by Governor Mike DeWine in April of 2019, bans abortion after a preborn child’s heartbeat can be detected, which is typically at six weeks’ gestation. Yost’s motion was immediately granted. Finally, three years after its passage, the heartbeat law was officially in effect. At last, Ohio would be a pro-life state!
The rabid pro-abortion lobby was not giving up so easily, however.
Numerous city and county prosecutors brazenly announced that they would not be enforcing any violations of the heartbeat law, citing prosecutorial discretion. They claimed that enforcing the law would be a waste of their resources and prosecuting individuals who provide abortions makes a mockery of justice.
As a former assistant prosecuting attorney, I find it disgraceful that some prosecutors and cities think they can pick and choose which laws to enforce. The hubris is astounding. Prosecutorial discretion should be employed rarely and only on a case-by-case basis. It is certainly not a tool that prosecutors should be using to score political points.
But prosecutors weren’t the only ones ignoring the law. The mayor of Cleveland, for example, bragged about establishing a $100,000 abortion slush fund to pay costs for city residents or employees who choose to go out of state to kill their unborn children. Cuyahoga County quickly followed suit, proudly informing all county employees that their benefits package includes travel reimbursement for lodging, transportation, and associated costs for “reproductive healthcare services.” It is truly sickening that some Ohio cities are proud to use taxpayer money to aid and abet in the extermination of innocent human lives.
At the same time this was happening, the ACLU — acting on behalf of Planned Parenthood and the other Ohio abortion mills such as Preterm Cleveland, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, and Women’s Med Dayton — decided to challenge the heartbeat law yet again in court. The first challenge, filed in the Ohio Supreme Court, ended in a dismissal. Next came a challenge in a common pleas court in Cincinnati. And on September 14, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas judge Christian Jenkins, a Democrat, granted a restraining order temporarily blocking Ohio’s heartbeat law. This means that until the order is lifted, abortions through 20 weeks gestation are legal in Ohio. This was the previous limit in Ohio, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for today, and leaders of all major Right to Life organizations in the state will gather in Cincinnati to rally peacefully and prayerfully for the protection of the unborn.
Perhaps it was lost on Judge Jenkins that the Ohio heartbeat bill was passed and signed into law in 2019 after being debated, dissected, and scrutinized for nearly nine years. During that time, scores of medical and legal experts testified for and against the heartbeat bill. Ohio citizens, through their elected representatives, had numerous opportunities to voice their objections. The heartbeat law withstood all these challenges, and Judge Jenkins’s cynical ploy to suddenly read a “right” to an abortion into the Ohio Constitution certainly won’t stand up to scrutiny, either.
As Margie Christie, president of the Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio, the largest grassroots pro-life coalition in the state, observed: “The citizens of Ohio are being bullied by the pro-abortion lobby and their judges. The will of the people is being grabbed away by outside money and influence.” This is naked judicial activism at its worst, folks.
A colleague in another part of the state recently told me about a woman who visited a local pregnancy resource center where an ultrasound revealed that she was more than six weeks pregnant with triplets. Tragically, the woman chose to have an abortion, and now, thanks to Judge Jenkins’s keeping the heartbeat law from being enforced, three babies are dead. Indeed, it is not hyperbolic to say that this judge has the blood of these babies on his hands, as well as that of hundreds of other tiny humans who have been killed since the injunction went into effect.
The pro-abortion lobby has been framing the abortion debate for far too long, and we cannot let that stand. Its lies must be challenged. Abortion is not a constitutionally protected right, and it is most certainly not health care. A heartbeat can indeed be detected via an ultrasound (despite the delusional ramblings of Stacy Abrams). Abortion does hurt women.
I do not expect the mainstream media to stand up for the truth, so we must.
Cleveland Right to Life and all other pro-life organizations in the state will be laser-focused on the November elections. We are particularly stressing the importance of the Ohio Supreme Court races to our members, as the current challenge to the heartbeat law will almost certainly be headed there. When it arrives, it is imperative we have justices with integrity who will faithfully interpret and apply the Constitution, not ones who legislate from the bench and invent rights that do not exist.
Meanwhile, through our Lifesavers Program, Cleveland Right to Life will continue to offer material support to women who are facing unplanned pregnancies as well as to those who need help providing for their children while they are going through difficult times. There is help available, and women do have options. Killing an innocent human being should never be one of them.