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Reproductive Rights

Woman's right to control her own reproduction, including access to contraception and abortion.

Letter to the Editor - On Contraception and Freedom of Conscience

Published in the Columbus Dispatch in February 2012.

The outcry about the mandate to include contraception among covered preventive services tries to frame it as an assault on separation of church and state. As an ex-Catholic, I fully understand the church's position on contraception and abortion, and defend its right to preach its creed to the faithful.

Petition Drives

Petition drives/direct democracy are being used increasingly in Ohio to change the Constitution and pass or repeal laws. If you need more information to decide whether to sign a petition or to help a petition drive, check out this area. 

Issue 5 (2008) was an referendum to support a recently passed law that restricted the rates that could be charged by payday lenders in Ohio. It passed by 63.6% to 36.4% See this page for more information about other issues on the 2008 Ohio ballot.

Ohio 2012 ballot measures (Ballotpedia.org)

2023 was a important year for petition drives. In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, a 6-week abortion ban enacted by Ohio's Republican legislature went into effect and was stayed by a court a few weeks later. But, while in effect there was the 10-year-old rape victim who was forced to go to Indiana in order to get an abortion. Predictable callousness by Republican officials galvanized a doctor-led petition drive to enshrine protections for reproductive rights into the Ohio Constitution. This effort succeeded (despite misleading ballot language) and Issue 1 was passed by a 13 point margin in the November 2023 general election.

This success was especially notable in light of an effort by the Ohio legislature and office holders to restrict the ability of Ohioans to initiate and pass constitutional amendments through the petition process. This change to the Ohio Constitution was put forth in an August 2023 Special Election (suspicious, since they had just done away with most August elections). This effort (also Issue 1) failed.

There was also a petition drive to legalize marijuana use through statute on the 2023 November ballot as Issue 2 which passed by a wide margin.

Looking forward to 2024, a new petition drive to reform the process of drawing the dictrict maps that are used to elect representatives will begin. In 2015 and 2018, there were petition drives to place what were hoped to be the answer to gerrymandering in Ohio. Both reforms passed with votes in excess of 71%. However, the reforms were developed in conjunction with the legislature and then they chose to not even follow the rules they had helped to create as well as ignoring the Supreme Court of Ohio when they tried to enforce the Constitiution.

The 2024 effort will center around removing political actors from the process of drawing district lines entirely. The organization heading this effort is Citizens Not Politicians. Pease consider donating, volunteering, and signing the petition when you see one.

Coffee & Conversation - The Republican War on Women

UA Progressive Action Coffee and Conversation
Saturday, April 7, 2012, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
30 Attendees

Speaker: Lauren Harmon, Director of the Ohio Democratic Women’s Caucus

Carolyn Casper introduced the speaker. Lauren Harmon will give us a brief overview of the war against women.

Women's Lobbying Day

Strong Women, Strong Voices: A Women's Lobbying Day

Tuesday, April 12
12:30 p.m. program

(Optional fundraiser 5-7 p.m.)
Renaissance Columbus Hotel, 50 North 3rd Street, Columbus, OH 43215

Ohio Gov. Kasich and GOP legislators have taken off with a full-fledged anti-women agenda – from women’s health to voting rights to public education and other issues important to Ohio's middle class. Make your voice in opposition heard!

Meanwhile, our Democratic women in government have fought for a pro-women and pro-family agenda. Make your voice in support heard!

Hosts: Women of the Ohio House and Senate Democratic Caucuses and the Ohio Democratic Party.

RSVP

HERE'S WHAT THE BULLY ON THE BUS IS UP TO

The times, they are a'changin'

Lloyd Benston famously said to Dan Quayle, "Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." And we say to John Kasich, "Governor, you are no Ted Strickland." In three short months, you have torn apart this proud state -- threatening every group that dares express an opinion that doesn't line up with your agenda.

Here's what the Bully on the Bus is up to:

Making teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other public employees the fall guys. Remember, immediately after the election, he said, “I am waiting for the teachers’ unions to take out full-page ads in all the major newspapers, apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign.” (Spingfield News-Sun) (Ironically, many union members voted GOP -- and now regret checking "Kasich" in the voting booth.)

Hiding budget cuts. Claiming to boost K-12 funding when schools actually will see cuts of 6.1 percent in the budget's first year and 4.7 percent in its second year. (Huffington Post)

Cutting programs for the poorest of the poor, vulnerable elderly, the handicapped while crowing about "protecting" the richest of the rich. As Ohio Rep. John Patrick Carney (D-Clintonville) told NBC4 in Columbus,"If they [nursing homes] are laying off 6,000 people, what are we going to do with respect to making sure the quality of care that the individual in those homes are getting?"

Taking away women's rights by banning abortions if there is evidence a fetus has a heartbeat -- which could be as early as 18 days after conception. (ABC News)

Disenfranchising voters. The Ohio Senate is considering a bill passed by the House that makes Ohio's existing requirements more stringent, blocking students, the working poor, the elderly, racial minorities, and people with disabilities -- who are twice as likely not to have the approved forms of ID. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The list goes on. And remember, Kasich took office in January! What is ahead?

Progressives cannot take this lying down. As Ted Strickland said in a March 19 speech, It's time to fight. now -- and the next two years.

Think it won't hurt you?

Reliable sources tell UAPA that the City Council is already contemplating how to make up the approximately $110,000 less that Kasich's budget proposal will mean for Upper Arlington. Not much? Right? But what about the $2 million to $4 million annually from estate taxes that will be gone if Kasich and his cronies have their way? (Our information was confirmed in the March 27 Dispatch, " 'Hypothetically, if they both go away, what are the ways to restore our revenues?' asked Wade Steen, an Upper Arlington councilman.")

That will definitely mean an increase in INCOME TAX for each of us. What a way to take a responsibility off a priviledged group and load it onto the entire middle class! (Maybe Kasich is protecting the $500,000 in bonuses he got from Lehman Brothers.)

Remember, shortages roll downhill. When the state won't pay, cities, towns, libraries, school districts and public colleges and university students must. (And that means YOU.)

Walk Feb. 26 for women's rights

Join in! Ohio Walk for Choice

Independent national grassroots effort in support of women's rights!

Saturday , February 26,
Noon, march from Wexner Center Plaza, North High Street at 15th Avenue, to the Ohio Statehouse (approximately 3 miles)
OR 2 p.m., rally at the Statehouse
Speakers, music and activities advocating for women’s rights
Details

Walk for Choice logoFight against the Congressional “Smith Bill,” (H.R. Bill 3), the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would end comprehensive health insurance and the legality of an abortion in life-threatening pregnancies. The “Pitts Bill” (H.R. Bill 358) to ban abortion coverage in state-based health insurance established under the new health care law. And the “Pence Bill” (H.R. Bill 217) to remove the Title X Family Planning Program and preventative care, including annual exams, cancer screenings, contraceptive services, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections – services which make up 97 percent of Planned Parenthood’s funding in Ohio.

In Ohio, there is the “Heartbeat Bill,” as well as House Bills 7 and 78, which seek to place laws against later-term abortions. House Bill 79 to prohibit abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered by the state, and House Bill 63 and Senate Bill 8, both posing further restrictions upon minors attempting to judicially bypass parental consent for an abortion. Read more.

Contact: Nikki Skrinak at Nikki.Skrinak@gmail.com or 614-354-2765

Another attack on health care for women

Cutting Planned Parenthood

Anti-abortion Republican Congress members are hurting women, in particular poor women, in the guise of saving money to balance the budget.

In a 240-185 vote Feb. 17, our representatives approved a provision to strip all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers.

This is truly an emergency for Planned Parenthood and women's health. Anti-choice leaders in the House forced a vote on $317 million for Title X (aid for family planning programs) that denies Planned Parenthood health centers every dime of $75 million in federal funding. Without that funding, many low-income people would lose access to their only source of basic health care.

Some pundits predict this effort will die in the Senate. But we have to make sure.

Call now and tell Ohio's Republican Sen. Rob Portman to vote NO. You can reach him at his Washington office, 202-224-3353, Columbus office, 614-469-6774, or by email.

What Planned Parenthood does

blood pressure checkYou may not realize the range of care that Planned Parenthood provides. The huge majority of clients turn to them for birth control (to actually avert the need for abortions), cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care. For many (including people that you know who have no or inadequate insurance coverage), Planned Parenthood clinics are the only source for these services.

The consequences of passing this bill are clear — and they would be devastating. More women would have unintended pregnancies. Cancer would develop, undiagnosed, in countless women. There is no doubt: cutting off millions of women from care they have no other way to afford places them at risk of sickness and death.

Speak out now — demand that Portman vote NO.

Read more: New York Times, "Planned Parenthood and its supporters are working to bolster defenses in the Senate. They hope that the Title X program - including a share for their group - will be restored as the two sides of Congress compromise on a spending bill. But supporters like Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and a leader of the abortion rights caucus, fear that protection of family planning could 'get lost in the larger issue of the budget.'"

Another attack on healthcare

Right now, Congress is considering a provision to strip all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers.

This is truly an emergency for Planned Parenthood and women's health. Anti-choice leaders in the House are forcing a vote on Title X that would deny Planned Parenthood health centers every dime of federal funding. Without this funding, many people would lose access to their only source of basic health care.

Call now and tell Rep. Steve Stivers to vote NO. You can reach him at his Washington office, 202-225-2015, or District office in Columbus, 614-299-6415.

You may not realize the range of care that Planned Parenthood provides. Women and teens turn to them for birth control, cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care. For many (including people that you know who don't have adequate insurance coverage), Planned Parenthood clinics are the only source for these services.

The consequences of passing this bill are clear — and they would be devastating. More women would have unintended pregnancies. Cancer would develop, undiagnosed, in countless women. There is no doubt: cutting off millions of women from care they have no other way to afford places them at risk of sickness and death.

That's exactly what Congress is voting on right now. Speak out now — demand that Rep. Stivers vote NO.

The Tiller Murder Wasn't a Lone Killer's Sick Plot; It Came Out of the Radical Anti-Abortion Movement

The Tiller Murder Wasn't a Lone Killer's Sick Plot; It Came Out of the Radical Anti-Abortion Movement

By Jill Filipovic
Alternet.org

Posted June 2, 2009

Red Sex, Blue Sex

 
 

The highest divorce and teen pregnancy rates are in red states, the lowest in blue states. Margaret Talbot digs beneath the numbers to wonder, why do so many evangelical teen-agers become pregnant?

[T]he red-state [abstinence] model is clearly failing on its own terms—producing high rates of teen pregnancy, divorce, sexually transmitted disease, and other dysfunctional outcomes that social conservatives say they abhor. […]

For too long, the conventional wisdom has been that social conservatives are the upholders of family values, whereas liberals are the proponents of a polymorphous selfishness. This isn’t true, and, every once in a while, liberals might point that out.

America’s dominant political divide:

Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion.

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