Why Christians and parents should vote YES ON ISSUE #1 IN AUGUST and NO IN NOVEMBER
Ohioans have two opportunities to protect parental rights in the nextfour months. In August, we must decide on Issue #1, an amendment thatwill protect the Ohio Constitution from being too easily tamperedwith. Issue #1 accomplishes that protection by raising the bar forthe passage of an amendment ballot initiative from fifty percent tosixty. This helps to protect our Constitution from being crowbarredby special interests and the progressive movement. I have alreadyexposed the deceptive claims of those opposing Issue #1 and havewritten on why you should vote YES on Issue #1 in AUGUST. You can read that article here.
In November, the ballot will contain another proposal to amend theOhio State Constitution. This amendment is entitled, The Right toReproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety. I’murging Ohioans to VOTE NO to this amendment initiative IN NOVEMBER.This amendment would be a disaster to parents and children if itshould pass.
A brief examination of the actual text of the proposed amendment willeasily show why this amendment is a really, really bad idea. Here’sthe first paragraph:
Every individual has a right to make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on:
contraception;
fertility treatment;
continuing one's own pregnancy;
miscarriage care; and
abortion.
Let’s examine it part by part:
Notice that while there are five specific areas of “reproductive decisions” identified, the explicit language opens it up to other not-identified areas of “reproductive decisions” when it says “including but not limited to”. What might those other areas include? Gender transition is one obvious answer.
Notice that there is no definition of the age of the individual covered by this amendment. It simply says, “every individual.” According to this amendment, a minor, a child of any age, has the right to “make and carry out” their own reproductive decisions. This means your twelve-year-old daughter has a right to an abortion, no matter what you as a parent might say or do. You are out of the picture. It means your seven-year-old son has a right to decide to transition as a girl—no matter what you as a parent might say or do.
Am I manipulating you with a scare tactic? No, indeed. Haven’t you been reading the news about what is ALREADY HAPPENING? Anyone who follows the news knows that the progressive movement has been successful in erasing parent’s rights in the matter of abortions, gender identity, and gender transitions of their children, aided and abetted by progressive school boards. School districts are hiding from parents their children’s attempts to transition. Parents are being accused of child abuse if they refuse to allow their children to transition, or if they even use the “wrong” pronoun.
No, this isn’t a scare tactic—it’s a warning that in November, this erosion of parental rights will become part of the Ohio Constitution. Unfortunately, this is a matter in which past performance DOES guarantee future results. Parents have no rights in this amendment. And because this is an amendment to the Constitution and not simply normal legislation, if it passes, a court can rule that the amendment invalidates any prior legislation recognizing your rights as a parent in these areas.
By the same token, this amendment makes abortion wide open for any and every reason, at any and every point in pregnancy: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions”. The restriction placed on abortion in the case of fetal viability, found later in paragraph B, is elastic: if the treating physician believes the mother’s “health” is at stake, abortion is permitted at any point of gestation. The expression, the mother’s “health,” has not in recent years been restricted to her physiological health but has been expanded to her mental and emotional health. This suddenly becomes a “right” to abortion at any point simply if the mother doesn’t want the child.
What about paragraph B? Here’s a portion of the actual text:
The State shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either:
An individual's voluntary exercise of this right or
A person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right,
unlesstheStatedemonstratesthatitisusingthe leastrestrictivemeansto advance the individual'shealthinaccordance with widely accepted and evidence-basedstandardsofcare.
This means a school teacher, guidance counselor, or anyone else, even a boyfriend, could assist your teenage daughter to get an abortion without your knowledge and without your consent—even over your opposition. It means some third party could seek to convince and then assist your minor son or daughter to secretly attempt a gender transition, without your permission and without your knowledge They would face no legal consequences for it.
You might argue that these are extreme slippery-slope possibilities,and that reasonable people would not interpret the law in thiswild-west fashion. You’re wrong about that, and I can easily proveit.
Think about this: when it was originally passed, Title IX of theEducation Amendments Act of 1972 was intended to provide womenthe same opportunity to participate in sports that men had. Those whopassed the law knew what a woman was. They never intended the law toenable biological males to compete against women, use women’slocker rooms and showers, etc. And look where we are now, preciselybecause the progressives HAVE taken the language of the law to anunimaginable extreme.
Regarding the slippery-slope, what sane individual of twenty yearsago could have imagined “Drag Queen Story Hour,” or “menchest-feeding babies,” or “pregnant people,” or custom-tayloredpersonal pronouns? Do you really think the progressive moment willstop short of pressing the vague language of this bill all the way tothe breaking point? I don’t. They have ALREADY demonstrated theywill take the inches given to them and turn them into miles.
For the sake of parents and children, this amendment must bedefeated. It will be easier to defeat if you VOTE YES ON ISSUE #1.
VOTE YES ON ISSUE #1 IN AUGUST!
VOTE NO ON THE REPRODUCTIVE AMENDMENT IN NOVEMBER!
