There’s a lot of confusion these days about the branches of government and their roles, even among elected members of congress. When things are working as they are supposed to, the legislative branch is writing law, the executive branch is enforcing law, and the judicial branch is applying law. There’s no reason the legislature shouldn’t pass the Heartbeat Bill and there’s no reason the governor shouldn’t sign it.
Unfortunately, both in Ohio and the nation at-large, we’ve got it backwards. Supreme Court justices have written abortion laws in this country and Ohio’s elected officials have for years bowed to the fiat rulings of the court. Not only are Ohio legislators not standing up to incorrect and unjust applications of the law, there are members of the legislative and executive branches who are preemptively declaring the Heartbeat Bill unconstitutional before it’s been passed. This toxic combination of judicial activism and legislative judicialism is not how our government is supposed to work.
What these senators and Governor John Kasich seem to have lost sight of is the fact that it’s Roe vs. Wade that is itself unconstitutional! There is no honest and intellectually serious defense of the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. Edward Lazarus, clerk for Roe v. Wade author Harry Blackmun, admitted that, “as a matter of constitutional interpretation, even most liberal jurisprudes — if you administer truth serum — will tell you [Roe] is basically indefensible.”
Even more damning, former Dean of Stanford Law School John Hart Ely wrote, “[Roe] is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.” In other words, the seven justices who ruled to make abortion legal in all fifty states didn’t even make an attempt to frame their actions as legally legitimate. In open violation of the restrictions on their power, they invented a right to abortion which is nowhere in the constitution and ignored the right to life which is.
Lest our representatives, executives, and judges here in Ohio be let off the hook, those who abide by moral and legal atrocities such as Roe v. Wade are no better than those who wrote it. It is the responsibility of every senator and representative to reject the court and reclaim their authority over the writing of laws and pass bills which protect preborn people from murder, just like everyone else is protected from murder.
It’s time our Ohio legislators do the right thing and pass the Heartbeat Bill!
There would still be work to be done even after its passage but 63% of abortions currently take place after a detectable heartbeat. The abortion rate would go down by more than half the day the Heartbeat Bill becomes law. That’s a big move in the right direction and toward a day when Ohio finally outlaws abortion and codifies into law the truths recorded in our Declaration of Independence; that we are all “created equal” and “are endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
The Ohio House already passed the Heartbeat Bill, meaning the senate must now vote on it before it’s sent to the governor. Our current governor has already vowed to veto the Heartbeat Bill as he did in 2016. This is an egregious violation of the command we’ve been given to love our neighbor.
Kasich had the power to stand up for the most vulnerable among us who are murdered at a rate of more than 20,000 per year in the state he governs but instead sided with the tyrannical, Godless, activist courts. He will have to answer for that one day as will the representatives and senators who likewise oppose bills to ban abortion because they are not ultimately accountable to Supreme Court; they are ultimately accountable to God.
Should the governor veto the bill, the senate and house could override his veto if the bill gets 20 votes in the senate or wait until next year for incoming governor Mike DeWine who has promised to sign it.
However it gets done, it needs to get done, and as quickly as possible. Call these Republican senators (especially senate president Larry Obhof of district 22) and demand they bring the Heartbeat Bill up for a vote, vote “yes” for its passage, and override the outgoing governor’s veto.
- Sen. Dist. 1 – Rob McColley – (614)-466-8150
- Sen. Dist. 2 – Randy Gardner – (614)-466-8060
- Sen. Dist. 3 – Kevin Bacon – (614)-466-8064
- Sen. Dist. 4 – Bill Coley – (614)-466-8072
- Sen. Dist. 5 – Bill Beagle – (614)-466-6247
- Sen. Dist. 6 – Peggy Lehner – (614)-466- 4538
- Sen. Dist. 7 – Steve Wilson – (614)-466-9737
- Sen. Dist. 8 – Lou Terhar – (614)-466-8068
- Sen. Dist. 10 – Bob Hackett – (614)-466-3780
- Sen. Dist. 12 – Matt Huffman – (614)-466-7584
- Sen. Dist. 13 – Gayle Manning – (614)-644-7613
- Sen. Dist. 14 – Joe Uecker – (614)-466-8082
- Sen. Dist. 16 – Stephanie Kunze – (614)-466-5981
- Sen. Dist. 17 – Bob Peterson – (614)-466-8156
- Sen. Dist. 18 – John Eklund – (614)-644-7718
- Sen. Dist. 19 – Kris Jordan – (614)-466-8086
- Sen. Dist. 22 – Larry Obhof – (614)-466-7505 (Senate President)
- Sen. Dist. 24 – Matt Dolan – (614)-466-8056
- Sen. Dist. 26 – Dave Burke – (614)-466-8049
- Sen. Dist. 27 – Frank LaRose – (614)-466-4823
- Sen. Dist. 29 – Scott Oelslager – (614)-466-0626
- Sen. Dist. 30 – Frank Hoagland – (614)-466-6508
- Sen. Dist. 31 – Jay Hottinger – (614)-466-5838