Tipsheet

This State's Radical Abortion Amendment Is Another Attempt to Abolish Parental Rights

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  May 23, 2023 1:00 PM

As Townhall reported earlier this year, Ohio voters will consider a radical constitutional amendment that its supporters claim is merely about repealing Ohio's "heartbeat law" protecting unborn children from abortion. Instead, as legal experts warned at the time, the amendment goes "much further" than what its proponents claim, instead being a radical vehicle to prohibit "virtually any restrictions on abortion and all other procedures, including sex-change surgeries" that "would cancel out not only parental-consent laws but also mere parental notification for minors' abortions or sex-change surgeries" and "strike down health protections for people of all ages who undergo these procedures."

That is, the proposed amendment is as radical as they come, but it seems that's the entire goal. 

Recently resurfaced tweets from an organization called Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE) are laying bare what the real goal behind the Ohio amendment — also supported by groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union — is. According to a December 2022 announcement, the ACLU's Ohio arm joined with the Abortion Fund of Ohio, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Ohio Women's Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Preterm-Cleveland, Pro-Choice Ohio, and URGE" to create the nice-sounding "Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom" to support the proposed constitutional amendment. But behind the bland name lie quite radical goals.

You see, while the amendment's proponents might falsely claim that the measure would merely repeal the Buckeye State's heartbeat law and would not impact the rights of Ohio parents, URGE has a clear track record of calling for parental rights — in general — to be fully "abolished," a goal that would be met with Ohio's proposed amendment.

Among several tweets from recent years, URGE shamelessly declared that "parental involvement laws are unethical and must be abolished," apparently for the sake of every "pregnant person."

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The D.C.-based group also used International Cat Day in 2021 to demand lawmakers "[e]nd parental involvement laws MEOW!"

URGE has expressed its direct opposition to commonsense laws requiring parental consent for a minor's abortion — laws that have the support of 56 percent of Americans — such as the one enacted in Florida:

In addition, the organization has called for activists in other states and jurisdictions to "mobilize" to "get rid of parental involvement laws," smearing such protections for children as "unnecessary restrictions." 

Lest any doubt remained about URGE and why it is feverishly supporting the radical amendment proposed in Ohio, here's another clear call to "END parental involvement laws."

What's more, URGE has come out publicly against laws that require teachers to notify parents if their children are experiencing gender dysphoria. 

Given URGE describes itself on Twitter as "A #ReproJustice, #POC-led org for young ppl in the South + Midwest. Centering POC & #Queer folk," its tweets and policy positions are unsurprising. Still, despite its radical nature, the group is plugged in to the mainstream of Democrat fundraising and directly benefits from the left's dark money funding infrastructure. 

URGE gets its funding in part from individual donations that are facilitated by the Democrats' ActBlue donor platform in addition to large left-wing dark money groups including the New Venture Fund and Packard Foundation as well as Planned Parenthood. URGE has also teamed up with Planned Parenthood to push radical policies such as those contained with Ohio's amendment. 

The proposed amendment in Ohio is not just about abortion, it's one piece of the left's ongoing battle to take the roles parents play in young people's lives away from them. If Ohio's amendment succeeds, groups such as URGE have their blueprint for how to reach its stated goal of abolishing parental involvement in other states. It's of little coincidence that at the federal level, the Biden administration has been making veiled comments about America's children belonging to a collective. Karine Jean-Pierre recently made a speech in which she talked about young Americans needing access to irreversible hormone blockers or genital mutilation procedures, defending her position by claiming America's children "belong to all of us." Vice President Kamala Harris, too, has previously claimed that American kids are "our children." Even Biden's Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has called for American parents to turn their children's future over to teachers who "we must trust" because they "know what is best for their kids." No thanks.

Leftists and Democrats continue to push rhetoric and, in the case of Ohio's proposed constitutional amendment, policies that usurp parents and treat children as wards of the state. The goal appears to be the same: canceling parental rights, strengthening government's hold on the rising generation, and all the while infusing their radical politics into the classroom. Isn't that the whole point of the push from groups like URGE and the proposed amendment in Ohio? Democrats have staked a clear claim to education, which they use to push their politics on young people. Parents, however, stand in the way of this political intervention in education. So, Democrats have no choice but to remove parents' rights to play their critical role in raising their kids. If you doubt that, URGE's tweets should be all the convincing you need. 

Protect Women Ohio — a group leading the charge to inform Ohio voters about the real intentions behind the proposed amendment — put a bow on the Democrats' real intentions with a response to URGE's resurfaced tweets this week, highlighting how working against parental rights is nothing new for the groups trying a new avenue to accomplish their radical aims: