There are two pro-life bills pending in the Ohio legislature, both of which are causing quite a stir among the Left. One is HB 258, or the “Heartbeat Bill,” which essentially bans abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, except for cases when the life of the mother is at risk. The other is HB 565, which would classify fetuses as “unborn humans” and make abortion punishable as a crime — both for the woman who receives an abortion and doctors who perform the procedure. While the former is on its way to passing both chambers with a veto-proof majority, the latter is receiving the most attention, even though it likely won’t see the light of day in the Ohio legislature.
One is a reflection of Ohio’s constituents, who seem to be more and more pro-life every year, and one is a more complex interpretation of a pro-life argument that is difficult to convey to a national audience on a practical level.
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For the last several years, Ohio has become increasingly pro-life. Though the legislature passed a similar “Heartbeat Bill” in 2016, Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, vetoed it. Still, pro-life groups pressed on. Aaron Bear, president of Citizens for Community Values, located in Ohio, told me, “In the eight years Kasich has been governor, we have cut the number of abortion clinics in half and decreased abortions by about 25 percent.” Although Kasich threatened to veto Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” again, it passed in the House with a veto-proof majority, and Bear thinks there is a good chance the Senate could pass it with a veto-proof majority as well.
Bear explained the bill’s importance this way: “The biggest thing with the ‘Heartbeat Bill’ is that it sets an objective standard for when life begins. We believe life begins at conception. Right now we’re operating under this vague standard of viability. We know life ends when your heart stops. Let’s say life begins when your heart starts beating.”
He thinks the Left hates the bill precisely for that reason.
“[This bill] highlights the humanity of the unborn child. You read every tweet, every news article … they talk about everything but when life begins.” If the “Heartbeat Bill” receives that many votes as a result of the number or pro-life representatives in the Ohio legislature, who is acting according to what the people want? Kasich or the legislature?
That said, this doesn’t mean every single bill a politician proposes represents the will of the people. The other bill, HB 565, is catching the eye of the Left because of its extreme content, when it’s often just simply muddying the waters of the “Heartbeat Bill.”
HB 565 is based on the philosophy that if a fetus is a human being, as most pro-life advocates believe, then killing a fetus intentionally would be murder and should be punished as such. Some advocates believe ethically it’s the only consistent pro-life position. However, as a practical measure (conveying extremely punitive damages to the mother, for example) it seems inconsistent with the pro-life message at large. That message is not necessarily “an eye for an eye,” but that all life has intrinsic value. It could be that many in the Ohio legislature share this sentiment. The bill itself, despite its controversy, was referred to a committee in June and hasn’t moved since.
For now, instead of focusing on an extreme bill that would punish mothers, a bill that hasn’t even gotten to the Ohio house floor, pro-life advocates and the media should focus their attention on the “Heartbeat Bill.” That is a measure that reflects the pro-life values of Ohio’s constituents and legislative body alike and could change the face of abortion in that state.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
