Ohio voters approved Issue 1 tonight after a monumental abortion battle in the Buckeye State. With 57 percent of the vote counted, Ohio voted 56% to 44% for Issue 1, which will make killing babies in abortions a so-called “right” in the state constitution.
The result was not surprising given how abortion advocates bought the vote. Also, Ohio voters also voted today on a ballot measure to legalize marijuana. That very likely increased turnout of liberal voters who were more likely to vote for abortion.
The pro-abortion side dominated fundraising – with reports towards the end of the election showing that they had 3-1 fundraising advantage over pro-life groups. The out of state dark money and millions from leftists like George Soros, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood allowed the pro-abortion side to dominate TV and online with blatantly false commercials that further angered liberal voters and drove them to the polls in higher numbers.
The Associated Press (AP) reported last Thursday that since September 8, the pro-abortion “yes” side in the referendum has raised almost three times more money than the pro-life “no” side: $29 million compared to less than $10 million. Much of the money for the pro-abortion side — likely over $50 million by the time it’s said and done — came from out of state and even out of the country while major pro-life donations came from within Ohio.
AP indicated that “the largest donations” supporting the pro-abortion “yes” campaign came from outside of Ohio. This included “three gifts totaling $5.3 million from the progressive Sixteen Thirty Fund, based in Washington, D.C.”
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is largely bankrolled by Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire.
According to the AP, the organization behind the “yes” campaign
received $3.5 million from the New York-based Open Society Policy Center, a lobbying group associated with the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, and $2 million from the American Civil Liberties Union, also based in New York. Billionaires Michael Bloomberg of New York and Abigail Wexner, the Ohio-based wife of retired Limited Brands founder Les Wexner, each gave $1 million.
The Ohio Issue 1 election results differ significantly from Gallup’s polling that it conducted on abortion this summer.
As Gallup notes, “Specifically, close to half of Americans, 47%, now say abortion should be legal in all (34%) or most (13%) circumstances, while a similar proportion, 49%, want it legal in only a few (36%) or illegal in all (13%) circumstances.”
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That means 49 percent of Americans take a pro-life position opposing all or most abortions while a lower 47% take a pro-abortion position supporting all or most abortions.
Even though Americans are still nominally pro-life overall, radical abortion activists are more angry that Roe was overturned than pro-life voters are happy about the Dobbs decision overturning it. That results in more abortion advocates turning out to the polls to vote for abortion because the smaller poll of pro-abortion voters are more incentivized to vote than the slightly larger poll of pro-life voters.
To counter this, pro-life groups need to a) emphasize the great things Dobbs accomplished – from saving babies to helping women, b) engage in more work to identify and turn out voters in elections, c) do more to fundraise and find large donors who can help the prolife movement overcome the massive fundraising disparity so it can counter the avalanche of false ads.
Current Ohio law permits abortion up until 22 weeks of pregnancy for any reason. After 22 weeks, Ohio law contains exceptions to protect the life of the mother and to prevent “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of the mother. Should Issue 1 pass, Ohio will become the most radical abortion regime in the country, allowing for late-term abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including when science confirms an unborn child is capable of feeling pain. As a constitutional amendment, Issue 1 will trump state law, rendering the 22-week ban unenforceable.
By failing to explicitly define viability, and by giving abortionists the final word in determining when post-viability abortions can be performed on a case-by-case basis, Issue 1 leaves the door wide open for painful, late-term abortions. Issue 1 also contains a major loophole by allowing late-term abortions to protect the “health” of the mother. The United States Supreme Court has interpreted “health” to include not just a mother’s physical health, but also her mental, emotional, social and financial health, essentially permitting late-term abortion for any reason.
The groups supporting Issue 1 have refused to rule out the fact that Issue 1 will legalize late-term abortion up until the moment of birth in Ohio.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of the abortion industry, more than 50,000 abortions are performed annually after 15 weeks when an unborn child is capable of feeling pain, and at least 10,000 are performed after 20 weeks.
PWO highlighted the fact that Issue 1 will permit painful, late-term abortions in Ohio in a recent ad featuring Ohio abortionist Martin Haskell. Haskell invented the barbaric partial-birth abortion technique in Ohio, and brags that he “routinely” performs late-term abortions at 20-24 weeks, even admitting 80% of the partial-birth abortions he performs are “purely elective.” Haskell gave $100,000 to the campaign supporting Issue 1 because he knows it is an investment in his late-term abortion practice.
Issue 1 will also remove parents from the equation, allowing minors to obtain abortions and life-altering medical procedures without parental consent. As a recent Cleveland.com report explains, parental consent laws “could stay in place if the state or anti-abortion attorneys can successfully argue to a court that parental involvement would advance a girl’s health.”
The ACLU, which wrote and is bankrolling Issue 1, has a long and well-documented history of attacking parental rights across the country, including in Michigan, Indiana and Alaska. The ACLU also publicly rallies against parents’ rights on its website, and its coalition partners call for the abolition of parental rights on social media.
Reports show that the pro-abortion side in Ohio’s fast-approaching Issue 1 referendum is vastly out-spending the pro-life movement.
The Associated Press (AP) reported Thursday that since September 8, the pro-abortion “yes” side in the referendum has raised almost three times more money than the pro-life “no” side: $29 million compared to less than $10 million.
AP indicated that “the largest donations” supporting the pro-abortion “yes” campaign came from outside of Ohio. This included “three gifts totaling $5.3 million from the progressive Sixteen Thirty Fund, based in Washington, D.C.”
As radical abortion activists promote Issue 1, which would allow abortions up to birth, they have also been targeting churches that are opposing it. Catholic schools, churches and cemeteries across the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, for example, have posted in recent weeks that they have been victims of vandalism and attacks.
Pro-abortion extremists have stolen, defaced or damages No on Issue 1 signs at pro-life business that are displaying them. And pro-life residents have experienced the same sorta of vandalism of their lawn signs on private residences.
A legal analysis of the extreme anti-parent amendment is available HERE from constitutional scholars Carrie Campbell Severino, President of Judicial Crisis Network, and Frank J. Scaturro, a former special counsel to the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.
