{"id":33525,"date":"2025-02-22T01:06:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T01:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/?p=33525"},"modified":"2025-02-22T02:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T02:01:56","slug":"the-fallout-from-ohios-abortion-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/the-fallout-from-ohios-abortion-law\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fallout from Ohio’s Abortion Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Jack Butler, originally published February 20, 2025, National Review<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope remains for reviving the culture of life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marty Martin wasn\u2019t the only Ohioan who felt like he got a \u201cpunch in the gut\u201d on November 7, 2023. Nearly a year later, in October 2024, the Steubenville teacher and thousands of other pro-lifers (including some of his students) converged on Capitol Square in Columbus for the Ohio March for Life. It was the third iteration of the event, which began after the Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs <\/em>decision permitted states to regulate abortion. And it was the first since what Kate Makra, executive director of Cleveland Right to Life, similarly described as the \u201cgut punch\u201d of the state\u2019s decisive vote in favor of enshrining a right to abortion in the state\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohio march was well attended on this sunny Ohio fall day. In the shadow of the state\u2019s undomed capitol, a vast array of pro-lifers \u2014 from legislators to veteran activists to students at the state\u2019s many Christian schools \u2014 had come to remind Ohio that \u201cWE\u2019RE. STILL. HERE,\u201d as one of their many chants that day went. Their resolve is undaunted. But with a right to kill the unborn now constitutionally prescribed, Ohio pro-lifers are trying to make sense of how that happened, what it means for abortion now, and what they can do to continue their worthy fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did 57 percent of Ohio voters support a pro-abortion amendment? When I spoke<\/a> to some of these same pro-lifers shortly before the election, they had some concerns about the asymmetry, in money and media, between their effort against Issue 1 and the forces working for it. And that asymmetry did manifest: the pro-abortion side spent nearly $60 million, much of it from out of state, while the pro-life side spent about $36 million. But they were confident that Ohio pro-lifers were moving in concert. Margie Christie, executive director of Dayton Right to Life, believes this remained true of the effort throughout. \u201cI thought we did a good job of unifying as a state and all saying the same things,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having more resources enabled the pro-abortion side to amplify misleading claims about how voting no on Issue 1 would affect miscarriage care (despite a clarification to the contrary issued by the Ohio Department of Health before the vote). But it would not have resolved a fundamental messaging issue. \u201cWhat we were saying wasn\u2019t resonating,\u201d Christie says. The attempt by pro-lifers to cast Issue 1 in terms of other concerns, such as those over parental rights and medicalized gender transition, did not measure up to the pro-abortion side\u2019s portrayal of a vote as securing a Roe<\/em>-style right to first-trimester abortion. Abortion proponents \u201chad a clear message of \u2018We need to protect these edge cases,\u2019\u201d says Adam Mathews, a state representative who remains committed to the pro-life cause. \u201cWith a lack of funding, with a lack of a clear message, we were not able to overcome that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pro-life side suffered from lack of robust turnout among voters whose support it could have reasonably expected. Eighteen counties that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 also had majority support for Issue 1, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer<\/em>. One third of self-identified weekly churchgoing Christian voters supported Issue 1, while 40 percent of that demographic statewide did not vote on the issue at all. Of self-identified weekly churchgoing Christians, 40 percent did not vote on the issue. There was a \u201cfailure of the body of Christ, of believers to show up to the polls to ensure that we voted against this particular amendment,\u201d says Peter Range, senior fellow for strategic initiatives at Center for Christian Virtue, an advocacy organization in the state. But pro-abortion forces succeeded \u2014 misleadingly \u2014 at communicating the stakes to voters, including their own, and at setting the parameters for discussion of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because they prevailed, Issue 1 became part of Ohio\u2019s notoriously amendment-prone constitution, and abortion is now permitted in Ohio at least to the point of fetal viability (around 24 to 26 weeks). Shortly before the Ohio March for Life, the state\u2019s Department of Health released a report that gave a preview of what this will mean. It found that 22,000 abortions took place in Ohio in 2023, a 19 percent increase from the previous year. This in an abortion regime that permitted abortion up to 22 weeks, given judicial impediments to the establishment of protections for the unborn before the Issue 1 vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now abortion-infused Ohio constitution will doubtless facilitate an increase in the number of abortions at least in the near future. The intentionally ambiguous language of the measure placed great weight on the up-for-debate words \u201cburden,\u201d to define what abortion restrictions the state could no longer permit, and \u201chealth,\u201d to enumerate what could justify an abortion. Pro-lifers\u2019 fear before the vote was that this capacious language would be used to gut existing protections for the unborn in the state, as had already been happening in neighboring Michigan. These fears are already being realized. The referendum is being used as a \u201csledgehammer,\u201d as Range puts it, against protections for the unborn. The core provision of the state\u2019s heartbeat law, which had been held up in the courts for much of the post-Dobbs <\/em>period, has already gone. A judge recently struck down the state\u2019s requirement that fetal remains be disposed of by cremation or interment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These other rules are at risk, and in various states of litigation. Part of the heartbeat law, for example, required that a doctor notify a pregnant woman of the detection of a fetal heartbeat. The state\u2019s 24-hour waiting period and ban on abortion via telemedicine remain in legal limbo. Much will depend on how these various cases proceed. \u201cWe recognize the people of the state voted for Issue 1 and that it\u2019s part of the constitution,\u201d says Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. \u201cThat being said, it is a very, very broad amendment with little specificity. And there are certainly open questions, including the right of Ohio to regulate the practice of medicine for purposes of promoting the health and welfare of its citizens. So those arguments need to be made, and the state needs to be defended.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these circumstances, pro-lifers are not without political recourse. Issue 1 may be on the books, but elections do still matter. Last October, the stakes of then-impending elections for Ohio supreme court seats loomed large for attendees of the state\u2019s March for Life. Three seats, two held by Democrats and one open, were up in the partisan contests. At the time, the court was split, four Republicans to three Democrats. In November, Republicans won all three, giving the state court a 6\u20131 Republican majority. This is no small victory: Current litigation over abortion restrictions will ultimately end up there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also still hope in legislation. Mathews and other pro-life politicians remain committed to doing whatever they can under the amendment\u2019s new regime. \u201cOhio\u2019s constitution has been amended, but that should not allow us to shirk any responsibility to strengthen our families,\u201d he says. Recently, he and a bipartisan group of state representatives introduced a bill to forbid \u201cstate-funded death\u201d \u2014 that is, to prevent Ohio taxpayer money from funding not just abortion but also euthanasia and the death penalty. Other legislation under consideration would support new mothers, pregnancy centers, and, in general, a culture of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such political activity will have to fight against a perennial temptation: to ignore pro-lifers and their cause. The Ohio march shares a purpose with its national equivalent: to ensure that pro-lifers won\u2019t be ignored. \u201cThat\u2019s our job as pro-life folks,\u201d says Christie. \u201cTo say, no, we\u2019re not going to go away.\u201d In Ohio and elsewhere, the complications of a post-Roe<\/em> world make this job more difficult \u2014 and more important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But pro-lifers in Ohio do not see their task as only political. They also see a need to earn credibility in the eyes of Ohioans. The pro-life cause lost in November 2023, and will suffer going forward, in part because much of the public perceives it as callous, not compassionate. \u201cWhen push came to shove and when we came to the public, does the average person in the United States believe the pro-life movement cared about the new life or what we can do for a woman who\u2019s in need?\u201d asks Will Kuehnle, associate director of social concerns at the Catholic Conference of Ohio (CCO). \u201cThe answer right now, the answer a year ago, is they just don\u2019t.\u201d Changing the hearts of the people will require pro-lifers to double down on the work they already do \u201cwalking with women in need,\u201d as Brian Hickey, CCO\u2019s executive director, puts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such steps would be part of a broader campaign to revive the culture for life. It won\u2019t be easy. In a sense, it brings pro-lifers back to the very beginning. \u201cI kind of feel like the pro-life leaders must have felt back in 1973 when Roe v. Wade<\/em> was first decided,\u201d says Makra, \u201cbecause I think in many ways, we have to start anew, to start building another consensus.\u201d Ohio wasn\u2019t the only place where the pro-life movement wasn\u2019t fully prepared for the fall of Roe<\/em>. And though that odious decision has been overturned, it will be harder to undo the culture of death it facilitated for nearly 50 years. That effort must take place culturally as well. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ve got to win the hearts and minds first, then change the laws,\u201d says Marty, of Steubenville. That will take time. But younger generations are already taking up the cause. \u201cThere\u2019s still hope,\u201d says Andrew, one of his students. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the gut punch remains on the books. On that bright October day, a group of pro-abortion protesters stood on the edge of Capitol Square, within earshot of the assembled pro-lifers, chanting, \u201cOhio voted for abortion, Ohio supports abortion.\u201d But Ohio\u2019s pro-lifers are in this for the long haul. For the sake of the unborn who motivate them, and who ought to motivate us all, they must be. \u201cWe are not sprinters,\u201d Peggy Hartshorn, chairwoman of the board of Heartbeat International, a pro-life pregnancy assistance network, told the marchers that day. \u201cWe are long-distance runners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Butler is submissions editor at National Review Online, a 2023\u20132024 Leonine Fellow, and a 2022\u20132023 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Jack Butler, originally published February 20, 2025, National Review Hope remains for reviving the culture of life Marty Martin wasn\u2019t the only Ohioan who felt like he got a \u201cpunch in the gut\u201d on November 7, 2023. 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