HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP, Ohio, December 22, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – “No more RINOs!” “Take Back the GOP!” These are the slogans of a Republican campaign, running against a Republican.
Radio talk show host and Heartbeat Bill hero Janet Porter has thrown her hat in the ring for state Senate. Porter will face Larry Obhof, the majority whip, in the March 15 primaries.
“I am running against the Republican establishment because they have blocked the most pro-life bill to ever pass the Ohio House of Representatives – the Heartbeat Bill – which is our best chance to save the most lives,” she told LifeSiteNews. “There's more they can do to represent life, liberty, and the family.”
In 2003, Porter founded Faith2Action, an activist organization championing natural marriage, the family, and the sanctity of innocent human life. She has also served conservative causes as National Director of Reclaiming America. For nine years, she served as legislative director of Ohio Right to Life, where she successfully led in the passage of pro-life bills such as informed consent, waiting periods, parental consent, fetal homicide, protection from dehydration and starvation, and the nation's first ban on partial-birth abortion. She also co-founded Students for Life at Cleveland State University in 1985.
Porter says the Republican-led establishment in the Ohio legislature has failed its constituents. “They are not doing what we hired them to do,” she explained.
Specifically, Porter says state senators, led by Governor John Kasich, have betrayed the pro-life movement by refusing to support the Heartbeat Bill, which would ban abortions once the baby's heartbeat is detected. “Governor John Kasich must either support the pro-life Heartbeat Bill or quit calling himself pro-life,” she told LifeSiteNews.
Calling politicians who run as pro-life but balk at her Heartbeat Bill “pro-life pretenders,” Porter says she sought to replace those “obstructionists.” “I tried to recruit a dozen people to run for Ohio's 22nd Senate District, but no one was willing to do it. So I put my faith to action and filed to run myself.”
The last straw came when Porter asked Majority Whip Larry Obhof to sign a petition to bring the Heartbeat Bill to a vote, but he declined. “These obstructionists are getting away with murder – literally – and we can't let them go unopposed.”
Obhof denied that he refused to sign a petition to bring the Heartbeat Bill to a vote. Then Porter delivered to the Medina County Gazette proof of her charge: receipt of the certified letter she sent to Obhof and its return postcard showing that Obhof did, in fact, receive it.
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“Pretending you were never asked to initiate or sign a discharge petition to bring the Heartbeat Bill to a floor vote flies in the face of the facts,” Porter responded. “This obstruction is one of the main reasons why I'm running for Senate – the establishment won't do what we hired them to do, and it is time for them to find another line of work.”
“Actions are what you believe. Everything else is empty political rhetoric. And we've had enough of that,” Porter said.
“Interestingly, I would have circulated the discharge petition myself,” explained Porter, “but after I used it successfully for the first time in Ohio history back in the '90s to pass the nation's first ban on partial-birth abortion, they changed the rule so that no non-legislator could circulate it.”
Porter also told LifeSiteNews, “If you're happy with merely regulating abortion, my opponent will do, but if you actually want abortion to end, then you're going to want to vote for Janet Folger Porter. … My opponent talks about how we should treat the dead bodies of aborted babies humanely – I have a better idea: let's treat live babies humanely and there won't be any dead bodies!”
Homosexuals and pro-abortionists are already wildly swinging against Porter, calling her a “radical anti-gay” and “anti-choice” activist.
In addition to her strong pro-life, pro-natural marriage, and pro-family stands, Porter says she is a fiscal conservative, supporting tax incentives to small businesses and less government interference.
Porter's website goes online Tuesday.