A proposed amendment to Ohio's state constitution has reached its next hurdle — the deadline for gathering signatures in support of the constitutional change — as proponents of the measure seek to gut parental rights under the guise of protecting Ohioans' "right" to kill their unborn children.
Wednesday marks the deadline for the amendment's backers to submit enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot and allow the people of Ohio to decide its fate. The threshold that needs to be reached, per The Columbus Dispatch, is "413,446 valid signatures from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties." According to proponents, they turned in more than 700,000 signatures on the July 5 deadline. But that doesn't necessarily mean the amendment will be put to voters in November.
Over the next few weeks, according to the Dispatch, individual county "board of elections' officials will check these signatures for possible errors" and those where it is determined that "the person wasn't registered to vote at the address written or the person's handwriting was illegible" will be "tossed." That process of verifying signatures will be completed by the July 20 deadline and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose will make the final determination of whether the amendment received enough valid signatures to appear on November's ballot by July 25.
Some videos of the signature collection process shared online appear to show that said signatures were being gathered by individuals paid for each person they got to sign — even when they know the signer is not a registered voter and therefore should have their named tossed by officials now reviewing the submitted signatures:
🚨Pro-abortion petitioner knowingly takes an invalid signature to make more money! #Abortion advocates want to enshrine abortion through all nine months into Ohio law. The first step is collecting signatures, but every signer must be a registered Ohio voter. #prolife #choice pic.twitter.com/I1yx5Yz6SX
— Created Equal (@createdequalorg) May 10, 2023
In another video posted by Protect Women Ohio — a leading opponent of the radical amendment working to champion and protect parental rights — another signature gatherer admits he's an out-of-stater gathering signatures on behalf of Planned Parenthood:
🚨BREAKING: Live footage leaked of out of state Planned Parenthood workers gathering signatures AND confirming to signers what they’re denying to the general public….
— Protect Women Ohio (@ProtectWomenOH) May 10, 2023
….That this amendment is about helping MINORS get abortions WITHOUT parental consent.🔽 pic.twitter.com/5R9vIVu3Kq
On Wednesday, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser slammed the amendment as "dangerous for the women and children of Ohio" for removing "parents from some of their minor children’s most important health decisions such as parental notification before an abortion." What's more, Dannenfelser noted the amendment "would eliminate basic health and safety standards for women" and "would permit late term abortion after the baby can feel pain and even right up until birth."
Townhall noted previously that, in addition to national support for the amendment coming from entities including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, groups such as Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE) have thrown their support behind the radical measure and betrayed proponents' other motives. URGE, in the past, has shamelessly declared that "parental involvement laws are unethical and must be abolished."
Amy Natoce, the press secretary for Protect Women Ohio, noted in a statement on Wednesday that the "ACLU’s extreme anti-parent amendment is so unpopular that it couldn’t even rely on grassroots support to collect signatures. The ACLU paid out-of-state signature collectors to lie to Ohioans about its dangerous amendment that will strip parents of their rights, permit minors to undergo sex change operations without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and allow painful abortion on demand through all nine months," she continued.
"The ACLU’s attempts to hijack Ohio’s constitution to further its own radical agenda would be pathetic if they weren’t so dangerous," added Natoce.
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