On the heels of Tuesday's loss, Mark Harrington says the Columbus-based Created Equal is already rolling out plans for November.
The Issue 1 proposal would have made it more difficult for voters to amend the state constitution. A "yes" vote would have enacted the measure immediately and nullified an abortion rights amendment that got on the November ballot with almost 500,000 valid petition signatures.
It would have raised the approval threshold to amend the Ohio Constitution to 60% of the vote instead of the current 50%-plus one. Liberal groups, however, poured a lot of money into the state and successfully confused voters, defeating the measure.
The language of "Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety," however, is pretty straightforward.
"This time, it's going to be about abortion," Harrington says. "We feel confident that we can prevail in November to defeat the measure that would expand abortion here in Ohio to the very moment of birth."
In addition to allowing a minor girl to abort a child without her parents' knowledge or permission, the amendment also permits minors to freely undergo gender manipulation treatments, including surgeries.
Elizabeth Marbach of Ohio Right to Life believes Christians will make the difference in November.
"As conservatives, as pro-lifers, and I would say mostly as people who fear God, we have to take a stand," Marbach submits. "We cannot be apathetic about this. When we talk about the issue of life, we have to be bold and courageous."
That includes showing up at the polls.
Carol Tobias of the National Right to Life Committee agrees.
"All pro-lifers and Christians in Ohio need to be voting 'no' on that measure, because it would allow abortion for all nine months of pregnancy and remove any parental rights for parents to know about their minor daughter seeking an abortion," she says.
That would allow men to clandestinely acquire abortions for minor girls.
Tobias recognizes that money is one of the pro-lifers' biggest obstacles for winning in November.
"They are well funded by very liberal billionaires who for some reason don't want to see precious babies born," she says of the abortion lobby. "We also have a media that is pretty much running as fact anything that the other side says, so we do have some huge obstacles to overcome."
She stresses, though, that no amount of money or media spin changes the fact that pro-lifers are doing the right thing. It is the human rights issue of the day, Tobias concludes.
