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Friday
5
Barry Sheets
Legislative Consultant
February 27, 2020
NEWS AND VIEWS
1. Life at Conception
-The House Criminal Justice Committee may not be meeting, but legislators and activists can learn much more about the key policy issue of our lifetime by
joining us
at the
Bringing America Back To Life Convention on Friday, March 6 at 11:30 a.m
.
There will be a wide-ranging panel discussion with the prime sponsors of the bill, Representatives Ron Hood and Candice Keller, along with attorney Gualberto Garcia Jones, President of Personhood Alliance and yours truly,
as we discuss the history, current situation and future of ending abortion in our lifetime. We hope you come, and also hope you invite your legislator to attend as well!
2. On Wednesday afternoon (heading into evening) the Senate Health, Human Services and Medicaid Committee held the third hearing on
Senate Bill 260
,
to ban Telemed services to provide chemical abortions.
A large group of pro-abortion advocates, from Planned Parenthood and the ACLU to newer "organizing" groups targeting teens and college-aged students, testified against helping to protect women's health. Their efforts were fruitless, as the panel voted to report the bill on a 7-4 vote (with Republican Stephanie Kunze of Hilliard voting with pro-abortion Democrats against the bill). The Senate may take up the bill if the session scheduled for next Wednesday is not canceled.
3. In another Senate vote, this time in the U.S. Senate, Democrats blocked a motion to achieve cloture on debate on a measure to allow living children to be left to die after a botched abortion
. On Monday, the Senate voted 53-44 to end debate, seven votes short of the 60 needed for cloture.
Senator Ben Sasse's
S130
,
the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
,
was supported by three Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Doug Jones of Alabama (who's running in a much contested race this year). Three Republicans missed the vote: Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (who is not a regular pro-life vote in the Senate).
4. One of the most dangerous pieces of legislation introduced in the Democrat-controlled U.S. House is
HR 2975
,
the so-called
"
Women's Health Protection Act"
sponsored by Rep. Judy Chu of California.
HR 2975 would repeal nearly every pro-life law, both at the federal and the state levels.
Chu has 215 cosponsors on the legislation. It is likely the pro-abortion Democrat majority in the U.S. House under Speaker Nancy Pelosi plan to move this bill as a way to signal to the Democrat base their continuing allegiance to the killing of defenseless unborn children. It is also rather clear that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would have no interest in entertaining the idea of having this bill heard or marked for votes if it gets to the Senate.
5. In a case of strange bedfellows, there was an interesting occurrence during Wednesday's testimony on
House Bill 431
in the House Criminal Justice Committee to create the Sexual Exploitation Database in order to lessen the demand for prostitution, which is a key hub of human trafficking.
However, pro-abortion group United for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE, what an acronym!)
testified
in opposition to a measure to protect women and girls from sexual exploitation (see under Feb. 26 tab on the page). They actually stated that "sex work needs to be de-stigmatized and sex work must be decriminalized" and they believed "commercial sex work" (i.e. prostitution) should be made "safer" and that this measure to publicly identify those who would pay for illegal sexual services might harm the industry! Hmmm...I wonder which industry they are REALLY worried about negatively impacting? Planned Parenthood, perhaps?
PROFILES
Each installment of the Friday Five will bring thumbnail profiles
of key policymakers and committees.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit-Judge John K. Bush.
John Kenneth Bush, born in Hot Springs Arkansas, earned a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1986, graduated from Harvard Law School with his J.D. in 1989, and practiced in Washington, D.C. and Louisville, Kentucky, where he served as president of the local branch of the Federalist Society. In 2017, he was nominated to a seat on the Sixth Circuit by President Donald Trump. He was confirmed in the Senate by a party-line vote of 51-47 in July 2017. In a notable case,
Judge Bush wrote the opinion in
EMW Women's Surgical Center v. Beshear
(2019), in which the Sixth Circuit upheld a Kentucky fetal ultrasound mandate law.
Judge Bush wrote that the law "provides truthful, non-misleading, and relevant information aimed at informing a patient about her decision to abort unborn life." Judge Alan Eugene Norris joined Bush's opinion; Judge Bernice Donald dissented, writing that the Kentucky law "has co opted physicians' examining tables, their probing instruments, and their voices in order to espouse a political message, without regard to the health of the patient or the judgment of the physician." The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case in 2019, leaving the law intact.
U.S. Congress Anthony Gonzalez (16th District)
-Anthony Gonzalez, a Republican born in Cleveland who lives in Rocky River, became a member of Congress during the 2018 election, and took his seat representing the northeast Ohio district in 2019. Gonzalez is a former football player, having played for the Ohio State Buckeyes and as a pro for the Indianapolis Colts before retiring in 2012 after being signed by the New England Patriots. Gonzalez went on to earn his MBA from Stanford after retiring from football. Rep. Gonzalez sits on the following committees: House Committee on Financial Services and its Diversity and Inclusion, Housing, Community Development, and Insurance, National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy, National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy subcommittees; the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and its Environment, Research and Technology subcommittees. Rep. Gonzalez is the primary sponsor of one bill that has been enacted: H.R. 1424, Fallen Warrior Battlefield Cross Memorial Act; he has sponsored seven more bills and co-sponsored over 60. Gonzales is considered center-right in his philosophy by his overall voting record, but significantly voted against the 2019 Budget Act which continued funding to Planned Parenthood.
Ohio State Board of Education At large: Erik Poklar.
Poklar, a former director of legislative affairs for Governor John Kasich, was appointed to the Board by Kasich in 2017. Poklar led the Kasich administration approach that led to legislative approval in 2013 for extending health-care coverage to approximately 700,000 previously uninsured Ohioans, also known as Medicaid expansion. He also led the legislative efforts to pass Governor Kasich's budget package for fiscal years 2016-2017 and a two-year, $2.4 billion state capital budget. Prior to that, he served as the director of legislative affairs and communications for the Governor's Office of Health Transformation. From 2008-2011, he ran Poklar Public Policy and Communication, a government affairs, marketing and communications service for numerous clients, including NASA, Battelle, and other clients in both the education and health care fields. Poklar, who is eligible for reappointment in 2021, sits on the Board's Assessment and Accountability and Continuous Improvement Committees.
Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee
-the House's oversight of Public Education Policy and Practices begins in this committee, Chaired by Rep. Don Jones of Harrison County. The committee is comprised of nine Republican members and seven Democrat members, the most parity of any committee in the Legislature. The members deal with issues relating to curriculum, school facilities and property, teacher standards, funding and oversight. The committee meets at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays.
Ohio Senate Transportation, Commerce and Workforce Committee
-the legislative panel of the Senate that deals with planes, trains and automobiles as well as Ohio's manufacturing and commerce, is chaired by Senator Rob McColley of Defiance. The panel has been assigned a very large number of bills but many of those bills are ones to name certain sections of highway after someone, create specialty license plates to raise money for causes, and dealing with occupational licensing regulations. The committee is comprised of eight Republicans and three Democrats. The committee meets at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesdays.
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The Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio is an association of metropolitan, county and local pro-life organizations. RTLACO focuses on developing and strengthening local grass roots pro-life leadership, true representative governing for the statewide organization, a commitment to a consistent and holistic pro-life standard to evaluate both policies and elected officials/candidates, and collaborative engagement to develop priorities for action.
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