It's a Moment of Truth for John Kasich - LEAH JESSEN/THE DAILY SIGNAL CHARISMA NEWS

Ohio Gov. John Kasich now has one of the nation's most aggressive pro-life bills on his desk, awaiting his signature. (Reuters photo)

It's a Moment of Truth for John Kasich

12/8/2016 LEAH JESSEN/THE DAILY SIGNAL   CHARISMA NEWS

The Ohio Legislature has passed and sent to Gov. John Kasich's desk a measure that would ban abortion after a baby's heartbeat is detected, about six weeks following conception.

Lawmakers passed the Unborn Heartbeat Protection Act on Tuesday as an amendment to a child abuse and neglect bill.

If signed by Kasich, the legislation would "generally prohibit an abortion of an unborn human individual with a detectable heartbeat," according to the language of the bill.

"Republicans are united that abortion is unacceptable in America," U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said in a statement Wednesday. "Our party platform advocates for a complete ban on abortion and states that 'the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.'"

"Fetal heartbeat ... has become a key medical predictor that an unborn human individual will reach live birth," the bill asserts.

The Ohio House passed the bill 56-39 and the Senate 21-10.

Kasich, a Republican who generally is pro-life, has 10 days to sign or veto the legislation.

Kasich's press secretary, Emmalee Kalmbach, would not characterize the governor's inclination amid a flurry of activity in the legislature's lame-duck session.

"A hallmark of lame duck is a flood of bills, including bills inside of bills and we will closely examine everything we receive," Kalmbach told The Daily Signal in an email.

In 2014, however, Kasich said he had legal concerns about a "heartbeat bill," The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported.

"At the moment of conception, a new and distinct human being comes into existence—someone who has inherent value and possesses a right to life," Melanie Israel, a research associate at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. "By witnessing to this fundamental truth, the pro-life movement has seen significant victories in state legislatures in recent years."

The heartbeat abortion ban provides an exception in cases where a physician performs a medical procedure "designed or intended to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman."

"The passage of this legislation in the Ohio Senate demonstrates our commitment to protecting the children of Ohio at every stage of life," state Sen. Kris Jordan, R-Ostrander, said in remarks quoted by CNN.

Similar laws have been struck down by courts in Arkansas and North Dakota.

"A new president [and] new Supreme Court appointees change the dynamic, and there was consensus in our caucus to move forward," Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, said, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

In Washington, Davidson said:

The protections provided in the Unborn Heartbeat Protection Amendment are a step in the right direction in protecting the most vulnerable among us, the unborn. I look forward to this becoming law and saving countless lives in Ohio.

Both pro-choice and pro-life groups, however, question the legality of such legislation.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio labeled the heartbeat bill as "dangerous."

"Banning women from getting a medical procedure is out of touch with Ohio values and is completely unacceptable," Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said in a prepared statement. "Clearly this bill's supporters are hoping that President-elect Trump will have the chance to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with justices that are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade."

In 1973, the Supreme Court case known as Roe v. Wade made abortion legal across the nation.

"Everyone is swept up in Trumpmania, but let's be realistic," Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said of the prospects of the legislation in court, according to USA Today.

His pro-life group supports a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, when scientific evidence suggests unborn babies feel pain, but was neutral on the heartbeat bill.

"Both are previability [abortion] bans, but we believe [the 20-week ban] is the best strategy for overturning Roe v. Wade and will ultimately prove most palatable to the Supreme Court," Katherine Franklin, a spokeswoman for Ohio Right to Life, told The Hill.

Heritage's Israel, however, said the Ohio measure has value:

Advancing policies that protect the most vulnerable and defenseless among us will help hasten the day when every human being, from the moment of conception, is protected in law and welcomed in life. 

This article was originally published at dailysignal.com. Used with permission.

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Pro-Lifers on Supreme Court Abortion Case: 'We're Coming Back in Full Force' - LEAH JESSEN/THE DAILY SIGNAL CHARISMA NEWS

Pro-Lifers on Supreme Court Abortion Case: 'We're Coming Back in Full Force'

 6/28/2016 LEAH JESSEN/THE DAILY SIGNAL  charisma news

A pro-life protester with tape over her mouth demonstrates outside the U.S. Supreme Court before the court handed a victory to abortion rights advocates, striking down a Texas law imposing strict regulations on abortion doctors and facilities in Washington. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

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Members of the pro-life movement standing outside the Supreme Court on Monday were visibly discouraged by the 5-3 decision striking down a Texas law that imposed health and safety regulations on abortion clinics. But those activists showed no signs that they intend to back down from the battle over abortion in the United States.

"The pro-life generation is stronger than ever before," Maddie Schulte, a regional coordinator at Students for Life, told The Daily Signal outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. "I'm excited to see what comes next. We're coming back full force."

"We believe in life," added Anja Scheib, a programs intern for Students for Life. "Millennials," in particular, she said, "are becoming more pro-life."

The case before the Supreme Court, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, involves a Texas law, known as H.B. 2. The law required abortion facilities to meet the same health and safety standards as other facilities performing similarly invasive surgeries. It also required physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, in the event that something went wrong during an abortion procedure.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that while abortion is legal in the United States, states are allowed to regulate the procedure as long as those regulations don't pose an "undue burden" on women's ability to get an abortion.

With Monday's 5-3 decision, the justices decided that the medical benefits of Texas' law did not justify the burdens they impose on clinics.

In issuing the majority opinion, Justice Stephen G. Breyer cited a district court's findings that concluded enforcement of the admitting-privileges requirement forced almost half of Texas' 40 licensed abortion clinics to shut down. If the surgical-center provision were allowed to take effect, the lower court added, the number of abortion facilities would be reduced further, so that "only seven facilities and a potential eighth will exist in Texas." 

On the basis of these findings, among others, Breyer wrote:

We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the federal Constitution.

Breyer was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Anthony M. Kennedy, and Sonia Sotomayor. Dissenting were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas, who said the decision "exemplifies the court's troubling tendency 'to bend the rules when any effort to limit abortion, or even to speak in opposition to abortion, is at issue.'"

Monday's decision is likely to affect other states with similar laws regulating health and safety standards for abortions. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, more than 20 states have laws that impose health and safety standards on abortion clinics, although not all are as strict as the Texas law.  

Virginia is one of them.

"I had to be here to witness this," Rebecca Gotwalt of Virginia told The Daily Signal. Gotwalt, who identifies as pro-choice, arrived at the Supreme Court a little after 7 a.m.

"I know we're repealing our TRAP [Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers] laws in Virginia, so it was very important to see the Supreme Court do this on the national level, so individual states will stop punishing women."

Supporters of the Texas law said it was an attempt to improve the health and safety standards for women seeking abortions.

The law was enacted after the 2013 murder conviction of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist who is serving a life sentence. The trial established that poor health and safety standards at Gosnell's clinic led to the deaths of multiple babies who survived botched abortion procedures, along with the death of a mother—in part because paramedics could not get a stretcher into the building.  

"Abortionists shouldn't be given a free pass to elude medical requirements that everyone else is required to follow," Steven H. Aden, a senior counsel at the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement after the decision. He added:

We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has ruled against a law so clearly designed to protect the health and safety of women in the wake of the Kermit Gosnell scandal. The law's requirements were commonsense protections that ensured the maximum amount of protection for women, who deserve to have their well-being treated by government as a higher priority than the bottom line of abortionists. Any abortion facilities that don't meet basic health and safety standards are not facilities that anyone should want to remain open.

Opponents view the requirements as simply an attempt to abolish abortion in the U.S., and were pleased to see the law struck down by the court.

"In states across the country, we've seen TRAP laws shut them down," Amber Banks, director of programs and communications for NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, told The Daily Signal. She added:

I remember when I was in college, I interned at the local Planned Parenthood ... because they had to have hallways a certain length and it mattered what their parking lot layout was. It just seemed really absurd because I know from talking to doctors and having doctors in my family, that that's not actually the kind of things that actually keeps people safe. It was just being used to force people to give billions of dollars for renovations or shut down.

Some supporters of the law, too, saw the case as part of bigger question of abortion in the United States.

"Abortion is—to me—an issue that is so near and dear to my heart and the hearts of millions of people across this country," Evan Stone of Louisville, Kentucky, told The Daily Signal. "It goes way beyond politics. We can disagree on taxes, immigration, whatever, but this is an issue that is central to who we are as a human civilization."

Stone, who is interning in Washington, D.C., this summer, said he spent the night outside the Supreme Court and started protesting at 6 a.m. Monday.

"Do we believe that human life has intrinsic value or not? That is the question at heart here," Stone said.

 

This article originally appeared on The Daily Signal. 

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