COLUMBUS, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) – While a dissident group claiming the name Catholic has launched a pro-abortion billboard campaign across the state of Ohio in support of a radical state constitutional amendment to establish a “right” to abortion, Catholic bishops have remained silent regarding the group’s efforts to shore up the Catholic vote in the upcoming Tuesday election.
Pro-abortion advocacy group “Catholics for Choice” carried out a “billboard blitz” this week, erecting 30 billboards across the state ahead of next week’s election, which includes on the ballot a pro-abortion state constitution amendment proposal called Issue 1, which the bishops of Ohio have strongly condemned. The “billboard blitz” includes the seven largest metropolitan areas in Ohio in an effort to gain the widest audience, with Catholics for Choice predicting that nearly 9 million will have seen their ads by Election Day.
The billboards include the following false messages: “Pro-choice Catholics: you are not alone. Vote Yes on Issue 1.” “63% of Catholics support legal abortion in all or most cases.”
Issue 1, which will be on the Ohio ballot next Tuesday, Nov. 7, would amend the state constitution and establish a legal “right” to make “personal reproductive” decisions, “including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion,” which the state “shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against.”
According to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the amendment would go far beyond even Roe v. Wade and block prohibitions on partial-birth and dismemberment abortions, allow abortionists to target disabled babies, and end parental consent requirements for abortion as well as minors’ contraception, sterilization, and “gender transition” decisions.
Catholics for Choice, which dissents from Catholic teaching on the sanctity of the life of the unborn, does not enjoy the endorsement of any Catholic bishop and so improperly assumes the name Catholic. The national pro-abortion advocacy group is based in Washington, D.C.
In January 2022, the dissident group blasphemously projected pro-abortion messages on the belltower of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in protest of the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Brian Hickey, Executive Director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, which represents the Catholic bishops of the state, issued the following statement regarding the billboards from Catholics for Choice:
It is sad that a group of individuals who identify as Catholics would promote a message that endangers pregnant women and vulnerable children. We pray they convert to Christ’s message of solidarity with the marginalized and join the Church’s commitment to accompanying migrants, the poor, and all vulnerable people.
Issue 1 puts women at risk, threatens parental rights, and allows for abortion through nine months of pregnancy. The bishops of Ohio continue to urge the Catholic faithful, clergy, and all people of good will to speak out against the dangers of Issue 1 and vote no.
Logan Church, speaking on behalf of CatholicVote, a pro-life political Catholic advocacy group, said of Catholic for Choice and their billboard campaign:
This group has done nothing more than try to grossly redefine and misrepresent the teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion. According to the long-standing teachings of the Church, this is not a matter of personal interpretation. This is nothing more than an out-of-state funded publicity stunt to try and confuse Catholic voters on their moral obligation to vote no. This is no different than Planned Parenthood attempting to force their crooked values on Ohio families.
However, the Ohio bishops themselves have not yet condemned Catholics for Choice for their open attacks on Catholic teaching on abortion or for their latest “billboard blitz” invoking the name Catholic in support of the murder of the unborn.
The bishops of Ohio have condemned Issue 1, urging Catholics to vote against it. Notable among the bishops has been Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati. In early October, in a pre-recorded homily that every parish in his archdiocese was directed to play at Masses, the archbishop directed all Catholics to take a stand at the ballot this November for the protection of the unborn by voting No on Issue 1.
“We cannot remain silent on a direct ballot question like the one in November, which is a clear threat to human life and dignity,” the archbishop said. “Please pray earnestly for its defeat. Please educate yourself, your family and your friends about its dangers. Please vote ‘no’ on Issue 1 on November 7.”
Schnurr warned that the wording of the abortion proposal is “so broad and so vague that a yes vote opens up the right to abortion with no restrictions: no term restrictions, no age restrictions, no parental notification restrictions.”
“This must not be our society’s response to women facing crisis pregnancies,” the archbishop declared.
Last month, clergymen representing 171 religious congregations in Ohio signed a joint letter urging religious Ohioans to oppose Issue 1, which they called “wicked” and warned would be “much harder to reverse than laws which can be changed with each legislative session” if it succeeds. On October 6, an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Ohioans descended on the state’s capital for the Ohio March for Life, many brandishing signs specifically calling for Issue 1 to be rejected.
LifeSiteNews reached out to Archbishop’s Schnurr’s offices as well the Committee for Pro Life Activities for the U.S. Bishop’s Conference (USCCB) for a statement about Catholics for Choice and their pro-abortion Ohio “billboard blitz”, asking that the bishops clearly condemn the group for a campaign that is misleading for both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. No response was received prior to publication.
Statements from the Ohio bishops on Issue 1 can be found below:
- Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati
- Bishop Paul Bradley of Stuebenville
- Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus
- Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo
- Bishop David Bonnar of Youngstown
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