Our mission is to support, promote, build and perpetuate the Democratic Party in Hancock County, Ohio by recruiting, screening and training qualified candidates; raising funds; registering voters; distributing literature; advertising; and doing other such appropriate activities.
I see a future where defending democracy, you don’t diminish it…
where we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms, not take them away.
President Joe Biden
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN OHIO
The Hancock County Democratic Party believes in the right of people to choose: whether it's your own body autonomy or voters having a say to enshrine reproductive freedom protections in Ohio's constitution.
Past and Present Rights...
For over 50 years, pregnant people were entrusted with their own bodily autonomy and our right to choose was protected by the U.S. Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade. Since that case’s infamous overturn last year, a 2019 Ohio bill signed into law banning abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected is now in effect (though its enforcement has been paused by a Hamilton County judge). The cardiac activity in a fetus is usually detectable around 5-6 weeks into pregnancy when many don’t even realize they’ve missed their menstrual period. This results in a near total ban of all abortions in the state of Ohio, without exception for rape or incest and for which pregnant people face more harm today.
Infamously Newsworthy...
The impact of Ohio’s extreme abortion ban is making national news. Last year, a 10-yr old victim of rape was banned from getting an abortion in Ohio under the law. General counsel for National Right to Life indicated that they support legislation like Ohio’s that require the 10-yr old victim to carry and birth the resulting offspring from that trauma. Other examples of impeded health care since the ban’s enactment have been brought to light in recent court cases, including limitations to miscarriage emergency care, cancer treatments, and forcing pregnancy and birth despite fetal malformations that are not life-sustaining.
Beyond Abortion...
Because Ohio’s law criminalizes doctors who provide abortions, Ohioans are at risk of having less access to skilled medical professionals who can perform procedures used for both miscarriage and lifesaving abortion care. Pregnant cancer victims have been denied life-saving chemotherapy due to the chemical concoction's harm to a fetus. Since the ban’s effective date, there have been reports like the woman who was denied medical care during her miscarriage due to the hospital’s unease at assessing the viability (for life) of the miscarried fetus. That’s why over 1,000 Ohio-based physicians wrote a letter in dissent of the abortion ban and began the initiative that has succeeded in getting a constitutional amendment to protect their patients from harm to be voted on this November.
Extreme Lawmakers...
Ohioans’ safest and most effective means to protect choice is through amending the Ohio Constitution. That’s because a supermajority of out-of-touch Ohio lawmakers who receive campaign funding from special interest groups like Right to Life to remain in office are legislating for the majority of Ohioans who support more reasonable access to reproductive healthcare. Coupled with an Ohio Supreme Court packed with justices already revealing their position on the matter and gerrymandered districts framed to assure pro-choice bills never see the light of day, the majority of moderate-viewed Ohioans’ voices remain unheard. The only remaining means of getting our voices heard was to collect over 413,000 signatures in order to pose to the voters in this November’s election: should this language be an Ohio constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights?
Constitutional Protections...
The language in the Constitutional ballot initiative not only protects access to abortion care but other reproductive rights as well. Because the abortion ban incorporates religious doctrine (for which various faiths and science are at odds) defining a human being’s life beginning at the moment an egg is fertilized, certain birth control methods and fertility treatments may be banned next. Recall the bizarre Ohio bill requiring doctors to impossibly reinsert an ectopic pregnancy’s fertilized egg into the womb for insurance funding of emergency care? Ohio’s General Assembly is packed with politicians who listen to their campaign donors over their constituents and who even want to change the process for citizens’ initiatives to change the Ohio constitution. Well-funded special interest groups, dark money in campaign finance, packed Ohio Supreme Court Justices who’ve shown their forced-birth hands, and gerrymandered districts enable zealots to control state legislation and convince Ohioans that bodily autonomy is somehow not in our best interest. This leaves our only option for our mainstream voices to be heard: a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom.
Misinformation Spread by Opponents...
Opponents of allowing reproductive rights protections in Ohio’s Constitution--like the dark-money-funded special interest group, Protect Women Ohio--have funded a a $5 million ad buy airing across Ohio to spread misinformation about the proposed constitutional amendment, making claims to what it would or would not mean for minors’ access to abortion, parental influence over their decision, and even gender affirming care. The truth of it is: the amendment has no impact on a parent's or guardian’s influence over reproductive care, as stated by Capital University Constitutional Law Professor, Dan Kobil, since “...it’s a crime in Ohio to perform an abortion on an unemancipated minor without consent of a legal guardian or judge… Children are not afforded the same constitutional rights as adults.” The consent laws in effect today remain unchanged once the amendment is passed. Furthermore, clinicians, non-partisan constitutional law experts, and the proposed amendment authors agree: claims are categorically false that the proposed amendment opens doors to allowing minors access to gender affirming care without parents’ knowledge.
Let the People Decide...
So…should protections for abortion care until fetal viability be enshrined by Ohio’s Constitution? Should Ohioans have unfettered access to medical procedures for miscarriage care? Will Ohioans have access to contraceptives like intrauterine devices (IUDs) and morning-after pills to prevent pregnancies? Will a couple get to decide what happens to their remaining fertilized in-vitro fertilized (IVF) eggs? Will we enshrine in Ohio’s Constitution the right to remain pregnant if we so choose? We think politicians hold no rights to interfere in these choices that should be left to those impacted along with their doctors and family. Voters should weigh in on protecting these measures in the Ohio constitution this November.
Take Action...
Contributions are also needed to reach more voters. Please consider a donation to any of the following organizations working in this space to let the people have a say:
And finally, stay abreast of news happening around this space and share updates and correct the misinformation being spread with your friends and family.