CLEVELAND (LifeSiteNews) — The campaign to stop an upcoming ballot initiative to enshrine a “right” to effectively unlimited abortion in the Ohio Constitution is rolling out a new ad specifically bringing the case against Issue 1, and the truth about its full ramifications, to Spanish-speaking Ohioans.
Drafted by the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and backed by the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights (OPRR) activism arm Protect Choice Ohio (PCO), the proposed Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety Amendment would guarantee a “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.”
Earlier this month, Ohio Attorney General David Yost released a legal analysis determining that the amendment, which is set to be voted on this November 7, would go far beyond even the Roe v. Wade status quo 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.
This week, the coalition Protect Women Ohio (PWO) rolled out a new Spanish-language ad about Issue 1, which the group says explains that passing the measure would mean legal abortion for all nine months and an end to health and safety regulations as well as parental notification or consent. The spot “will be broadcast on various Hispanic radio stations in Ohio and will be widely distributed through digital platforms,” according to the group.
“Ohio voters cannot allow such an extreme abortion agenda to be imposed in the state. The vast majority of civilized countries do not allow the type of extreme abortion that is sought to be imposed in Issue 1,” said Alfonso Aguilar, an advisor to PWO and president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “Hispanics in Ohio oppose abortion, and that is why it is important for them to go out and vote against the dangerous, late-term abortions proposed in Issue 1.”
PWO is also running a $5 million statewide advertising campaign in hopes of raising awareness about the amendment’s ramifications for gender-confused youth. PWO spokeswoman Amy Natoce has noted that the measure’s true nature “is so unpopular that [the ACLU] couldn’t even rely on grassroots support to collect signatures” and instead “paid out-of-state signature collectors to lie to Ohioans” about it.
Other pro-lifers across the Buckeye State are working to sound the alarm and raise opposition as well. 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.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati directed each of its parishes to play for Mass-goers a homily by Archbishop Dennis Schnurr urging all Ohio Catholics to vote against the amendment, which he called a “clear threat to human life and dignity.”
Last week, 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.