State Faces Resistance to Right to Abortion Measure
October 6, 2023 | Ohio
More than 100 black faith and community leaders in Ohio are urging Ohioans to vote against an upcoming ballot measure that would place a right to abortion in the state constitution, arguing that the issue is a “life-or-death” matter for the black community.
The bipartisan group of black faith leaders organized by Choose Life Ohio released a joint letter Tuesday in opposition to Issue 1, the ballot initiative Ohioans will vote on in November. The faith leaders argued that the issue is not partisan or a “party-line vote,” highlighting the impact abortion has had on black women and families.
Ohio Issue 1 would establish a constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including abortion, contraception and fertility treatment. The amendment would allow the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability but not when deemed “necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
“The Black community has been the target of the abortion industry for decades, beginning with the deplorable ideology of racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, whose Planned Parenthood organization purposefully established abortion mills in minority neighborhoods and targeted our communities for abortions,” the letter reads.
“Sanger’s mission was to kill Black babies before they entered the world, and Planned Parenthood and the for-profit abortion industry have allowed that mission to continue to this very day.” (Excerpt from The Christian Post.)
