About 350 people, mostly women, vowed to vote out Republicans, including Gov. John Kasich, during a rally Wednesday at the Ohio Statehouse against laws that restrict abortions and address women's reproductive health. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A rally outside the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday decried legislative changes to laws affecting women’s health and made clear where they have set their sights: Gov. John Kasich and the Republican majority in the Ohio General Assembly.
The rally, which drew an estimated crowd of 350, mostly women, railed against restrictions on abortion enacted by the Legislature, including requirements for tests they say are medically unnecessary and changes in funding formulas that could strip Planned Parenthood of support for its health centers in the state.
We Won’t Go Back, Stand Strong with Ohio’s Women, was supported by more than 50 groups from across Ohio, including chapters of the National Organization of Women, organizations representing physicians, abortion and reproductive rights organizations, labor unions and political organizations.
“Women are not fooled by the hide-and-sneak tactics of John Kasich and his pals who want to push us back to the 1950s,” said Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. “Make no mistake, the politicians who keep waging this outrageous war on women will pay a price at the polls next year.”
For its part, the administration responded saying that Kasich supports reasonable restrictions, and reiterated the governor’s position on abortion. “The governor is pro-life and believes strongly in the sanctity of life,” said spokesman Rob Nichols.
O’Neill argued that the actions to limit abortion and laws affecting reproductive health amounted to sex discrimination. Legislators, she said, aren’t talking about limitations on men’s reproductive rights. She challenged the crowd to contact five people and talk with them about the issues and get them involved.
”This is just the beginning,” she said.
Eleanor Smeal, the co-founder and president of the Fund for the Feminist Majority and former NOW president, criticized Republicans for campaigning on jobs but then focusing on women’s health and abortion restrictions.
“And it’s not just here. It’s everywhere the GOP took state legislatures and governor’s mansions. They ran in 2010 saying they were going to create more jobs,” Smeal said. “They talked about jobs, but in every state where they won, the minute they won, all they want to talk about is women’s uteruses ..."
In Ohio, provisions were included in the budget bill passed by the General Assembly and signed by Kasich. The provisions took effect Tuesday.
Among them were provisions that bar abortion providers from entering into emergency transfer agreements with public hospitals, force women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound and change how federal dollars are distributed among the state's family-planning centers, which critics say will put Planned Parenthood at the end of the list.
Another provision demands that abortion providers give women seeking abortions information on family planning and adoption services if a heartbeat can be detected through the use of a trans-abdominal ultrasound. It also compels doctors to inform those women "of the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics" of a fetus during various stages of its development.
The laws “hurt our most vulnerable women,” said Stephanie Kight, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. “Our politicians have passed laws that are medically unnecessary and that are designed to reduce access to the care women need.”
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis, in an interview after the rally, said the demonstration amounted to political speeches that didn’t offer new ideas for addressing abortion issues.
“From our perspective, it was nothing more than a political stunt.” he said. “At the end of the day, what did they accomplish? What did they say that they haven’t been saying for the last three or four months?”
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