The Republican War on Women - Ohio Moves in a New Direction

Gov. John Kasich appointee Mike Gonidakis

This is the thirty-second in a series of articles on the subjects of women, abortion rights and the Republican Party. 

Republicans continue to say they don’t have to change their core principles, they only have to change the language they use to get their message out.  One perception they want to alter is the idea that they are running a “War on Women”.  Looking at the news over the past few years, I’d say the Republican Party has a long way to go on this subject.

• Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): “Talk about a manufactured issue.  There is no issue.” 
• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus:  “It’s a fiction.”

The Ohio Front

facts and commentary:  Banning abortion at earlier and earlier weeks, requiring unnecessary facility upgrades and hospital admitting privileges for abortion doctors, insisting on unwanted and unwarranted ultrasounds, and legislating medical abortion dosages different from those recommended by the medical profession is just so yesterday.

Abortion opponents want to move beyond that.  They want to restrict abortion based not on availability of abortion facilities or fetal viability, but solely on the mother's motivation. 

Currently, a woman requesting an abortion in Ohio is not asked to explain her reason. A proposed law would change that.  A bill is being considered that would require any women seeking an abortion to tell the abortion provider if her request is based on a report of a fetal abnormality.  It would become illegal for a woman to have an abortion if her doctor has determined that she is carrying a fetus that will be born with Down Syndrome.  North Dakota passed a similar law in 2013. though no prosecutions have resulted.  Indiana, Missouri and South Dakota have recently considered but not passed like bills.

Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis--who does not have a medical degree but was nevertheless appointed to Ohio's State Medical Board by Governor John Kasich (R)--said his group is making the bill a priority because Down Syndrome frequently results in the mother choosing abortion.  An academic paper reported that from 1995 to 2011 between 60 and 90 percent of fetal Down Syndrome diagnoses resulted in abortions. Ohio's legislature, where two-thirds of both houses carry endorsements from the National Right to Life Committee, is expected to approve the bill this year.

Sara Ainsworth, director of legal advocacy at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women said "I can't imagine how any of these laws would be enforceable."

I have to agree with Ms. Ainsworth.  Consider two women.  They are the same age, of the same race, share the same economic and marital status, and both are 16 weeks pregnant.  One is carrying a fetus with no known abnormalities, the other has been told by her doctor that her fetus will be born with Down Syndrome.  Under current law, both women could obtain a safe, legal abortion. Under Ohio's proposed law, Woman #1 could legally abort her healthy fetus while woman #2 would be forced to carry her defective fetus to full term.  I don't see how this proposal could ever pass the equal-under-the-law sniff test.  

To put this in the most vulgar terms possible, this law is basically saying: Until we find a way to stop all legal abortions, we'll make do with forcing women to give birth to unwanted and impaired infants. The resulting consequences to the families involved are unimportant.

What is not said is that once this unwanted child is born, conservative legislators have no intention of helping the parents cope.  They still want to cut social assistance programs and decrease the amount of money spent on special needs education.  They will happily force a woman to have a Down Syndrome baby, but then they won't want to see or hear from her or her child again.

Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine had the same reaction.  "If abortion on demand is legal, and you can have an abortion just because you want to, what does it mean to say you can't abort for Down Syndrome?  It seems bizarre."

Kellie Copeland, executive director of Naral Pro-Choice Ohio said, "This is interference with a medical decision following a complicated diagnosis.  For us, it comes down to who makes the decision and who's going to have to live with it.  Not knowing the family and the circumstances, the legislature can't possibly take into account all the factors involved."

At Preterm, a Cleveland abortion clinic, Chrisse France reported that about 1.5 percent of the abortions they perform are because of fetal abnormalities.  "They're very sad, because these are mostly intentional, much-wanted pregnancies, where they paint the nursery one day and find out the next day that something's wrong.  Most people who have abortions already have children, and they say things like, 'I just can't be the kind of parent I want to be to this child.'"

Ohio is already one of the most anti-abortion states in the country.  Since Mr. Kasich took office, Ohio's abortion clinics have been reduced to nine from 16.  Ohio was the first to introduce a bill that, had it passed, would have banned abortion after six weeks. Another bill that prohibits abortion after 20 weeks is still pending.

Now a Republican presidential candidate, Governor Kasich, who is vocal in his opposition to abortion rights has not offered his opinion on the Down Syndrome bill; but his anti-abortion record speaks for itself.  You can read more on that here and also here.

The Republican War on Women is "fiction?"

WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY

THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.