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The results are in, and I have to ask, what went wrong in Ohio? It was also called relatively early in the evening, which is telling. Overwhelmingly, Ohio residents have no problem killing babies. So yeah, I’ll compare them to Hamas.
But, I have also to ask, was it totally the fault of Ohioans? Republicans are to blame big time. Our messaging about abortion sucks.
This is the kind of crap messaging people are seeing, people who refuse to dig in and do some research of their own because they’re too busy looking at TikTok.
Breaking: ISSUE 1 PASSES!
Abortion access is now the law of the land in Ohio!
Ohioans can rest easy knowing that we will never again be denied timely medical care.
This has been such a long time coming.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/5aJYOiEPir
— Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio (@PPAOhio) November 8, 2023
While the lefties frame abortion as all about the freedoms of choice in medical care, health care, choice, women’s bodies, blah blah blah, they leave out all the gory details like you are killing an actual baby.
Ohio has elected to make abortion accessible all the way up to 40 weeks. Ya’ll, I can’t even. What world am I living in? But you won’t see that in any writings anywhere.
And look at them all cheer, all in the name of freedom to kill the babies.
But many things went wrong with the messaging, campaign ads, and misinformation being touted.
Let’s begin with this from the New York Times:
The amendment explicitly allows the state to ban abortion after viability, or around 23 weeks, when the fetus can survive outside the uterus, unless the pregnant woman’s doctor finds the procedure “is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
But that language does not appear on the ballot. Instead, voters see a summary from the secretary of state, Frank LaRose, a Republican who opposes abortion and pushed the August ballot measure to try to thwart the abortion rights amendment. That summary turns the provision on viability on its head, saying the amendment “would always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability.”
Ohio’s law was that abortion was legal up until “viability,” which I believe “they” say is 21 weeks. Only a doctor can determine if the baby needs to be “taken” after that if the woman’s life is in danger. And we all know what that really means.
Abortion in Ohio up to viability was always legal in Ohio, but now it is enshrined in the state’s constitution as a right.
Note: A lower court blocked Ohio’s six-week ban in late 2022, allowing providers to perform abortions through 22 weeks of pregnancy, and the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the ban in late September. – The 19th News.org
Next, we have the government overreach faction invoking celebrities messaging about abortion saving lives, except the baby’s life, of course. I swear, celebrities can twist up a yarn faster than a cheetah chasing its prey.
The “yes” side has also appealed to Ohioans’ innate conservatism about government overreach, going beyond traditional messages casting abortion as critical to women’s rights. John Legend, the singer-songwriter and Ohio native whose wife, Chrissy Teigen, has spoken publicly about an abortion that saved her life, urged in a video message, “Issue 1 will get politicians out of personal decisions about abortion.” – New York Times
And does it matter that Donald Trump was brought into the campaigns? I believe they meant well, but it obviously backfired.
In Ohio, the anti-abortion side has leaned into arguments that the amendment would encourage “abortion up until the moment of birth.” An ad aired during the Ohio State-Notre Dame football game featured Donald Trump warning, “In the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother.”
Data shows late-term abortions are rare and usually performed in cases where doctors say the fetus will not survive. In Ohio, there were roughly 100 abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy in 2020. – New York Times
The bottom line, in my humble opinion, is the messaging was mucked up by Republicans. And the people of Ohio didn’t know what they were voting for, or maybe they did. But I doubt it.
We’ve got to get smarter, edgier, quicker, and more current on this critical topic. I’m asking you, dear readers, what can we do to change this in our favor? How can we save babies?
Welcome HotAir readers!
Feature Image: Thomas/Baby Fingers/Flickr/CC By CC2.0
John says: The Bible is quite clear in regards to aborting a fetus. The perpetrator must pay a fine of 2 shekels to the father.
BJ says: Maybe you all need to use a lot more carrot and a lot less stick.
George Kirkpatrick says: Such as?
BJ says: When a woman finds she is pregnant when she doesn’t want to be, there are all sorts of fears. What if my boyfriend/husband doesn’t support me? What if my family disowns me? What if I have to drop out of school? What if I lose my job? How will I take care of the kids I already have? What if I get sick? What if I die in childbirth? Etc.
She needs love, care, and support now. Dismissing her concerns as trivial?Threatening to put a bounty on the heads of herself and her friends? Threatening her with jail if she has a miscarriage? That’s just going to send her to the nearest abortionist all the faster.
Listen to her. Give her a place to stay. Make sure she gets the food and medicine she needs. Help her with her household. Protect her from abusive boyfriends/husbands. Help her keep her job or stay in school. Etc.
It’s going to take decades, millions of dollars and a lot of hard work to get get this system in place, but the one carrot will beat a thousand sticks.
Cameron says: You lost me at “threatening her with jail if she has a miscarriage.” Not one single law against abortion has that anywhere and no one has called for it.
And everything you are advocating for is already in place. But it’s up against the belief that killing children is a sacrament and that anything else is harmful to the mother.
bob sykes says: A substantial majority of Americans (58% ?) support abortion, so the results are not unexpected. The Ohio voters also legalized recreational marijuana, which also has majority support among Americans.
A number of issues are settled in the minds of Americans: Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, the welfare state, abortion, drug legalization… If the Republican Party does not move on to other issues, it will disappear like the Whigs they replaced.
Among the issues the Republicans need to get away from is their odious, obsequious worship of Zionism.
George Kirkpatrick says: The problem is that most people in Ohio want it to be legal to have an abortion. The problem isn’t messaging. It’s not like some extra good communications strategy would have won this. People knew what the amendment was about and they were in favor of it. In this country most people are genuinely in favor of a right (or at least an ability) to get an abortion. That’s just the reality that we must face.
Sam says: I’m a Republican who wants to win elections. We have to accept the fact that opposing abortion leads to election defeat. Those who oppose abortion need to accept that they will loose at the polls and need to find a compromise to limit abortion rather than ban it outright.
Cameron says: As repugnant as this is, this is still a matter for the states to decide. It’s desperately important for the majority to treat pregnancy as a minor inconvenience that can be done away with. Best bet is to keep fighting.
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