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Friday Five
Barry Sheets
Legislative Consultant
October 11, 2019
The assaults against God's plan for Life and the Family come from
many fronts in the culture war. However, if we are patient, these
attacks open up the flanks of the opposition, and allow for
Pro-Life and Pro-Family wins!
NEWS AND VIEWS
1. My first maxim of politics is that the left will always outrun their cover and push too far too fast
. A prime example of this is Democrat presidential candidate Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke, who at a CNN
hosted
"town hall" on LGBTQI (alphabet soup activism) issues, revealed the real
philosophy
behind the "gay rights" push:
"There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution...that denies the full human rights, the full civil rights (read sexual orientation/gender identity acceptance)...and we are going to stop those who are infringing on human rights."
What this means is that the concerns we have had over the denial of religious freedom and Biblical truth in the face of the homosexualist agenda is right on target. O'Rourke (and many others) wants churches, schools, and ultimately individuals punished for not conforming to the sexual and familial rebellion against God's truth.
Thank you for spelling that out clearly: the homosexualist forces don't seek accommodation, they seek capitulation.
2. As the investigation
reveals
more and more horrors around the actions of deceased abortionist Ulrch Klopfer
, now with the revelation of even more bodies of babies he killed and kept as grisly trophies in the trunk of his car, it brings to mind that we have a mechanism to prevent this from happening in Ohio, if we can only get some elected officials to finish the job.
Senate Bill 27
, which is sitting in the House Civil Justice Committee after passing the Senate early this spring, would require legal documentation for each and every set of fetal remains, and those remains would be treated with dignity, transferred to funeral homes or crematoria, and humanely buried or cremated, not kept as a grim collection by an abortionist (or sold for parts). It will only take two more votes, one by the committee and one on the House floor, to make Senate
Bill 27 law in Ohio.
Please take a moment or two and contact Speaker Larry Householder (614-466-2500;
[email protected]
) and Civil Justice Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Hambley (614-466-8140;
[email protected]
) to ask politely for Senate Bill 27 to be voted into law before the end of this year!
3. Planned Parenthood (PP) is once again showing why Congress, especially when controlled by supposed conservatives, should never, ever, ever, send taxpayer money to the abortion-industrial complex: it will be used against you in campaigns.
PP's political arm, Planned Parenthood Votes, announced this week their plan to spend at least $45 million dollars on elections, with a goal of unseating President Trump (who has been arguably the best friend that pro-lifers have ever had in the White House) and taking enough Senate seats to flip the chamber to Democratic control in 2021. They are targeting nine states with Senate seats that are open or might be flippable, which doesn't include Ohio (our U.S. Senate race won't be until 2022). Now we also have a better understanding of why PP's previous president was fired:
THIS
is actually what they mean when they use the phrase "women's health."
4. Next Tuesday, the Ohio Senate Health, Human Services and Medicaid
Committee
will be hearing proponent testimony on two Pro-Life bills
(the committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. in the Senate South Hearing Room).
Senate Bill 155
s
eeks to establish protocols for providing information on reversing chemical abortions (abortion pill reversal) which are begun but the woman changes her mind in the middle of the abortion process
.
Senate Bill 208
would establish State-level penalties for providers who botch an abortion procedure and then allow the born-alive infant to die without care (or worse yet, like in the case of Kermit Gosnell, perform a "post-birth" abortion).
Anyone wishing to testify or submit written testimony must file this with the chairman's office by 1:00 p.m. on Monday, October 14
th
.
5. Another area of Pro-Life activism that is starting to garner attention is that of standing up against in-vitro fertilization which creates multiple human lives, most of which are either stored indefinitely, given over to research or terminated, which is just as horrific as abortion.
An
article
in the Chicago Tribune profiles the growing area of concern (but does so from a fertility-clinic support apologetic), and highlights the need to create pro-life advancing policies around this practice. Ohio policymakers should pay special attention here, as
a State Appeals Court in May ruled that a human embryo is not a person
in the wrongful death suit brought after the Cleveland Clinic's IVF facility had a storage tank malfunction. We need to have this corrected, and the life of the human being recognized and protected from the moment of fertilization in our laws.
PROFILES
Each installment of the Friday Five will bring thumbnail profiles of
key policymakers and committees.
Ohio Supreme Court: Justice Melody Stewart
-the first African-American woman elected to the state's highest court, Justice Stewart formerly served on the bench for the Eighth District Court of Appeals. Justice Stewart has more than 30 years of combined administrative, legal, and academic experience. She was an administrator for a health care management company, a music teacher, a civil defense litigator and a law school administrator and professor before being elected to the Court of Appeals. Justice Stewart holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati; a Law Degree as a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University; a PhD as a Mandel Leadership Fellow at Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. She also was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Cleveland State University in 2018. Stewart, a Cleveland native, has voted in the dissenting position on key cases that would limit abortion in Ohio.
U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R)
-Ohio's junior Senator is from Cincinnati. Portman is a former member of the U.S. House from 1993-2005 and also served as U.S. Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President George W. Bush. He has served in the U.S. Senate for Ohio since 2011. Portman serves on multiple
committees
, and serves as Chairman of both the Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy of the Committee on Finance, and of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. He also serves on the Committee on Foreign Relations and four of its subcommittees, on the Joint Economic Committee, and the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multi-employer Pension Plans. Portman, who is known for his work on the Second Chance Act to help reentry of ex-offenders, holds a Pro-Life voting record. He is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking. Portman has received criticism for his abrupt embrace of special rights for homosexual practice in 2012, after revealing his son identified as homosexual.
U.S. Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-2nd Congressional District)
- Wenstrup, represents a broad swath of southwestern Ohio's second District, which includes Clermont, Brown, Adams, Highland and parts of Hamilton, Ross and Scioto Counties. He is a Physician and Small Business Owner who is serving his fourth term in the U.S. House. Wenstrup is also an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve who saw duty during the Iraq War. He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Wenstrup usually votes Pro-Life, but cast a vote in the last session supporting a budget that continued funding for Planned Parenthood.
Ohio House of Representatives: Cindy Abrams-29th District
-Rep. Abrams is brand-new to the House, gaining appointment on the resignation of former Rep. Louis Blessing III, to become a member of the Senate. Abrams, a member of the Harrison City Council for three years, is a former police officer for the City of Cincinnati. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice from Indiana University and is a graduate of the Ohio State University Public Leadership Academy. She was sworn into office on Thursday. Abrams has not received committee assignments as of this writing. We will update on this new member as committees are assigned, bills introduced and votes processed.
Ohio House of Representatives: Jason Stephens-93rd District
-Rep. Jason Stephens, also sworn into office on Thursday, takes the place of former Speaker and Rep. Ryan Smith of the 93
rd
District in southeast Ohio. Stephens, a licensed Insurance Agent from Kitts Hill in Lawrence County, was the former Auditor of Lawrence County and owns Stephens and Sons Insurance Agency. He also served as the Lawrence County Republican Party Chairman. He hold Degrees in Economics, Finance and Business Management from Lipscomb University. Stephens has not yet been given committee assignments as of this writing.
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