An
Ohio
parents’ rights organization is continuing its fight against an
American Civil Liberties Union
-backed ballot measure it argues would allow children to obtain sex-change operations and
abortions
without parental consent.
Proponents of the measure said it only pertains to abortion, but Protect Women Ohio and other organizations opposed to the initiative said the language would allow for much more.
“Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion,” the
measure
states.
Using words and phrases such as “individual,” “reproductive decisions,” and “including but not limited to” are evidence of the broad-reaching intent, according to PWO.
“The language in this amendment is so broad and so vague, and it puts no age limits on this,” PWO’s Amy Natoce told the Washington Examiner. “It specifically says ‘including but not limited to,’ so that leaves this so open-ended. Sex-change operations affect someone’s reproductive organs. Gender reassignment surgery, hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy.”
The ballot measure would also preclude Ohio from putting a “burden” on one’s ability to exercise the rights protected, something which the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, which are both behind the initiative, have argued includes parental consent.
The ACLU has an entire page on its website
arguing against parental consent laws
regarding abortion, and Planned Parenthood has sued in
Alaska
and
Indiana
arguing against similar laws.
Natoce said the language is deliberate and, if passed, will be used in the future to diminish parental rights and allow children to make life-altering medical decisions on their own.
“They absolutely know what they’re doing,” she said. “Their attorneys who wrote this language are well-educated, they’re experienced, and they’re smart people.”
“Every single word of this amendment was carefully chosen,” Natoce continued. “They knew they were eliminating parental consent, they knew they were erasing parents from the conversation, and they knew that they were stretching far beyond abortions.”
Informing Ohioans of these implications is why PWO rolled out two new ads as part of a
$5 million campaign
that began last month.
Both ads feature Ohio mothers explaining the measure.
“As a parent, I could be cut out of these decisions that my child is making, and someone who is coercing them or is talking them into something could take my teenage daughter. She could get an abortion or get a procedure done, and I don’t even know about it,” mother Libby McCartney said in one ad. “That’s what’s scary.”
“If they wanted it to be about just abortions, they would have made it just about abortions. They added in these really loose language terms such as ‘reproductive decisions,'” mother Linda Corbitt said in the other ad. “So it could be my 11-year-old daughter going out, making decisions without my involvement. She can say I’m going to go get a sex change, and I can’t say or do anything about it because we have this amendment now that eliminates my right as a parent.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The ballot measure came in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade last year. Ohio law currently bans abortions once the fetal heartbeat is detected, around six weeks.
