One year ago those who are anti-abortion won an historic victory when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973), ending a 50-year rule that abortion was a right protected under the U.S. Constitution.
But in many respects the war is just beginning, and there’s no better indicator than the battle currently being waged today in Ohio.
"Reversing Roe v. Wade basically lifted the blockade to pro-life legislation," said Tom Jipping, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies to Newsmax. "At both the federal and state levels the pro-life movement is pursuing legislative protections for the unborn."
South Carolina is the latest state to approve abortion restrictions.
It enacted a 6-week ban on abortions in most cases.
Florida enacted a similar ban with the governor’s signature on April 14.
But it’s not all champagne and roses.
"The … decision basically took off the table the U.S. Constitution as a basis for challenging abortion laws," Jipping said.
"But the pro-abortion movement addresses three fronts in their effort."
And one of these fronts, "is to try to amend the state constitutions to protect abortion. That happened in three states in last year’s election, and it’ll be on the ballot in Ohio, for example, in the election this year."
Jonathan Jakubowski, who writes a Newsmax column called "The Red Pill," is chairman of the Wood County, Ohio Republican Party and is working vigorously to defeat those efforts by winning an election coming up next month, and defeating a second in November.
He told Newsmax that it’s "a huge issue that most people aren’t aware of called Issue 1, and it’s fundamental to the security of our state."
Issue 1 will make it more difficult to amend the state constitution, by requiring a 60% popular vote to pass initiatives as opposed to its current simple majority vote.
Additionally, an initiative would require signatures from voters of all 88 counties in order to appear on the ballot. Currently it only needs signatures from 44 counties.
Jakubowski explained that, "we’re one of only 16 states in the country that allows our constitution to be amended by a ballot initiative. And, I believe, only 10 allow it to happen by a simple majority."
If voters approve Issue 1 on Aug. 8, it will help defeat what’s coming in November.
The effort is spearheaded nationally by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, and even conservative, Republican-majority states like Kentucky and Kansas fell prey to their campaigns by easing their abortion restrictions.
Jakubowski, the author of "Bellwether Blues, A Conservative Awakening of the Millennial Soul," described the proposed Ohio initiative as "dark as dark can get," one which even leaves language open enough to permit partial-birth abortions.
In addition, “It would ban parental consent or notification [for minors seeking] transgender surgery and abortions” and eliminate other hurdles for such procedures.
Jakubowski co-authored a column that The Federalist published in late May on the issue titled, "Dear Ohioans, Vote In 2023 Or Kiss Your Constitution And Parents’ Rights Goodbye."
And they’re going at it tooth and nail. He said they’re pouring enough money into Ohio to "make a pig look like a bride on her wedding day."
Backers of the ballot initiative said they delivered more than 700,000 petition signatures on July 5, nearly twice the 413,446 names necessary for the proposed amendment to appear on the Nov. 7 ballot
Anti-abortion activists are appalled.
CatholicVote Ohio director Logan Church called the proposed amendment "too extreme for Ohio" considering it "seeks to cut parents out of their child's most important and life-altering health decisions — including abortions and sex change operations.”
It also attracted the attention of national figures, including Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who said, "This amendment is dangerous for the women and children of Ohio,"
The initiative also caught the attention of nationally-recognized legal experts, including Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network.
She concluded in a column that appeared in National Review that, "armed with the language of the Ohio proposal, the state courts can be fully expected to carry out more-extreme abortion policies than the U.S. Supreme Court ever did during one of the sorriest chapters in its history."
And they’re doing it "in the dead of night" by scheduling it in an off-election year, when many voters may not even be aware an election is scheduled, and many parents may not be aware that their rights are about to be extinguished.
When President Biden declared that America’s children are "all our children," he didn’t mean it in a good way.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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