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09-11-2023
COLUMBUS, OHIO: Columbus area residents Beth and Kyle Long held hands as they walked into the Franklin County early voting centre to cast their ballots for a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion and other reproductive rights into the state’s constitution.
Beth, now 18 weeks pregnant after in vitro fertilization, is at the same point in her pregnancy as she was in January when she got an abortion after learning the fetus she was carrying had a fatal condition.
“The doctors came back and told us, ‘all of her organs, except her heart, are growing on the outside of her, enmeshed in the placenta,” she told NPR. “‘[They said] there is nothing we can do to go through and separate that. No fetus has ever survived this condition, and yours will not be the first.'”
The Longs were featured in an ad for Issue 1, one of many that have dominated the airwaves in a contest that many view as a critical precursor to the 2024 elections.
“I think it’s important for us to know that no one else here in Ohio has to go through what we went through,” Kyle Long said before voting.
If voters approve the measure, which is similar to one passed in Michigan last year, Ohio would become the seventh state to pass abortion rights since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
Should the amendment pass, it could stop the return of a law that prohibits abortion at the point when fetal cardiac activity can be detected, as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
A county court put that law on hold a year ago after doctors brought a lawsuit claiming that while it had an exception for the life of the mother, some women were being put in situations that endangered their lives.
The state appealed that ruling to the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court, which includes three justices who have publicly gone on record as opposing abortion rights.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, supporters and opponents of the amendment have been knocking on doors and holding rallies at the Ohio Statehouse.
Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, says churches are working to defeat the amendment.
“What it is going to take for us to win is the church, the body of Christ, and pro-life activists rising and highlighting how radical this abortion amendment is,” says Baer.
Baer echoes the messaging of many opponents of the amendment, who say it would do away with the state law that requires parental consent or a court order before a minor under 18 can get an abortion. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
