This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Warning: offensive video content
The defeat in Ohio Tuesday of a ballot proposal that would have raised the threshold to pass an amendment to the state constitution from 50 percent to 60 percent sets the stage for a battle royal over abortion in the key Midwestern state that will be watched closely across the nation.
Issue One was soundly defeated, 57-43 percent, in the Aug. 8 special election, and turnout was high, especially for such an oddly timed election. Social conservatives sought the 60 percent vote threshold to ward off another proposed constitutional amendment, "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety," which has qualified to be on the ballot on Nov. 7.
If passed, that amendment would eviscerate Ohio's pro-life "heartbeat" law – passed in 2019 by the state legislature and signed into law by the state's Republican governor, Mike DeWine – that currently protects unborn babies whose heartbeat can be detected.
Pro-abortion-on-demand activists and "progressives" nationwide were exultant after their Issue One victory, further fueling Democrats' efforts to use abortion as a wedge issue to regain and expand power nationally and in various states, post-Dobbs.
The pro-life lobby group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA Pro-Life America) said in a statement: “It is a sad day for Ohio and a warning for pro-life states across the nation. ... Millions of dollars and liberal dark money flooded Ohio to ensure they have a path to buy their extreme policies in a pro-life state. Tragically, some sat on the sideline while outsider liberal groups poured millions into Ohio,” the Hill reported.
Christian conservative Kayleigh McEnany, former Trump press secretary and a Fox News co-host, said on the network Wednesday, "For Republicans, there is a way to win on this issue, but they need to get on offense."
The person interviewing McEnany on Fox, Dana Perino, was also once a White House spokeswoman for George W. Bush. Perino explained that with the Dobbs decision the Supreme Court said: "This is for the states to decide. And the states are deciding. But, there is federal [pro-life] legislation, and you have Republican candidates about to debate two weeks from today, and all of them have been, sort of, not really wanting to take on this issue.
"But this issue is going to take them on if they don't," Perino warned.
McEnany agreed and laid out three basic ways for Republicans to get off defense on the issue:
Ohio Republican Party was AWOL
One Ohio pro-life and pro-family leader says the Ohio Republican Party was nowhere to be found in the fight over Issue One.
"What many of us are wondering is, where was the Ohio Republican Party?" Linda Harvey, founder, and president of Mission America, told WND. "Their support was minimal at best."
Harvey said, "There are a lot of people fuming about the lack of support" from the state GOP, noting, "It wasn't just that we were under-funded compared to the other side."
The stakes are huge as conservatives fear "direct democracy" through plebiscites favors Democrats who can raise more big-city and out-of-state money than Republicans. National Review reports: "Conservatives warned that leaving the threshold at 50 percent plus one vote could cause Ohio to become a blueprint for progressive groups to circumvent the normal legislative process in states across the country."
Yes on One outgunned in ad buys
The Yes on Issue One side was woefully outgunned in media ads and yard signs by the No on One forces. The latter sought to portray the effort to get a 60 percent hurdle for constitutional amendments as undermining "one man, one vote" in Ohio – even though, as conservatives noted, it takes a 60 percent vote (or higher) to change the constitutions of the Ohio Democratic Party and other "progressive" organizations that actively opposed Issue One, including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the League of Women Voters.
This reporter, based in Ohio, also heard many complaints from Yes on One supporters that yard signs for the "Yes" effort were hard to come by. Meanwhile, "No on " signs were seen everywhere.
The money that flowed into media ads for the "No on One" campaign surely made a big difference; even conservative AM radio stations like WTVN in Columbus, which hosts the "Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show" in Rush Limbaugh's old time slot, ran "No on One" ads frequently, while this reporter rarely heard pro-Issue One ads.
Pro-life activist Janet Porter called the huge, largely out-of-state money behind "No on One" "blood money," and said in a post-election video interview that it "can buy a lot of deception." Porter runs Faith2Action and is the architect of Ohio's heartbeat pro-life bill. She also has helped similar bills get passed in other states.
Did Issue One have anything to do with condoms? No, but...
Deception, or perhaps "disinformation," is not too strong a word for at least some of the propaganda that ultimately helped sway voters to reject Issue One. For example, one video ad created by the Progress Action Fund that received immense attention (see video below) featured a man playing a Republican Congressman who is shown, literally, inside a couple's bedroom as the man and a woman start having sex. Here's how the ad goes, keeping in mind that banning condoms and contraception is not on the agenda of serious Republicans in Ohio, nor across the nation:
Just after the man reaches for a condom in a bedside drawer, the camera pans to a Republican Congressman in a business suit, who intones: "Sorry, you can't use those." The startled couple quickly cover themselves in their sheets.
"What are you talking about? Who are you?" says the woman.
"I'm a Republican Congressman. Now that we're in charge, we're banning birth control," he replies.
"This is our decision, not yours! Get out of our bedroom!" yells the woman.
"I won the last election. I'm not going anywhere," responds the Congressman. "I'm just gonna watch and make sure you don't do anything ... illegal."
Progress Action Fund's motto is: "The Democrats are afraid to fight back. We aren't." Here's how they describe themselves: "Founded by Obama Administration alum Joe Jacobson, the Progress Action Fund produces & runs hard-hitting ads to defeat Republicans in swing districts. When Republicans go low, we go lower, because in politics you have to put your opponent on defense & shape the narrative. As President Lyndon Johnson said, “While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your a**."
A Republican data analyst, Scott Tranter, commenting on PAF's misleading ad, told NewsNation that such ads motivate Democrat voters and donations to campaigns: "They're certainly going to make a run at it going into 2024. Look, the House is razor thin. Ohio is going to be a battleground. If the Democrats take back the House and they keep the Senate, it's going to be through states like Ohio, and it's certainly a state that Trump – [or] the Republican candidate – needs to win."
But Harvey says not so fast: "While pro-life, grassroots activists in Ohio are very disappointed in the outcome [on Issue One], a big part of us is very determined and energized to go forward and secure a victory in November to defeat these extreme, pro-abortion forces trying to sweep through our state. Our message to them has to be: 'You can't have OHIO.'"
