FOSTORIA REVIEW TIMES

Proponents of the bill say the legislation would grant preborn persons the same legal protections as citizens under state law from the moment of fertilization.

House Bill 370, or the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, if approved, states that it would fulfill Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that “[n]o state shall deny…to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Having an abortion could result in criminal charges, and exceptions to the law are only for “life-saving procedures” on pregnant women and spontaneous miscarriages.

CHRISTIAN POST

The “Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act,” introduced by state Reps. Levi Dean, R-Xenia, and Johnathan Newman, R-Troy, last Wednesday, seeks to “entirely abolish abortion” by granting criminal and civil protections from the point of fertilization and overturning a 2023 amendment to the state constitution that establishes "an individual right to one's own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion.”

Under the bill, which has six co-sponsors, the state of Ohio would uphold the U.S. Constitution by “protecting the lives of preborn persons with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the lives of born persons by repealing provisions that permit willful prenatal homicide or assault,” including the 2023 amendment.

LIFENEWS.COM

The Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, introduced Wednesday by State Reps. Levi Dean, R-Xenia, and Johnathan Newman, R-Troy, seeks to classify abortion as homicide and extend criminal and civil protections to babies before birth, effectively abolishing abortion in Ohio. The legislation, House Bill 370, also challenges the state’s 2023 constitutional amendment, which 57% of Ohio voters passed after a very deceptive multi-million dollar campaign that lied to voters.

End Abortion Ohio, a Christian nonprofit that collaborated with the bill’s sponsors, hailed the legislation as a step toward “the legal abolition of abortion.” The group argues that the 2023 amendment, known as Issue 1, violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and is “null and void.” They called for an appeal to “the highest law; the law of God.”

THE SENTINEL

Two lawmakers in Ohio introduced legislation to completely abolish abortion in the state, a measure that was controversially opposed by a prominent pro-life establishment group.

The newly submitted legislation, entitled the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, would work to “abolish abortion in Ohio by establishing equal protection of the laws for preborn babies,” according to a release from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. The bill would simply apply existing homicide laws that already protect born people to protect preborn people as well.

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

Rather than only regulating the circumstances around abortion or limiting the types of people who can legally induce an abortion to pregnant women, we should establish true equal protection by safeguarding preborn people with the same laws safeguarding born people. Opposing this standard is not consistent with the belief that preborn babies are image-bearers of God, who are worth protecting.

An analysis from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion contended that “the abortion amendment in the Ohio Constitution is null and void” since the measure violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment also “contradicts the Law of God, which makes clear that we shall not murder.”

OHIO CAPITAL JOURNAL

Pro-abortion rights advocates are taking a proposed total abortion ban in Ohio to heart. Noting the celebration of Juneteenth and Black emancipation, they say the use of the 14th Amendment to try to exert state control over individual freedom and bodily autonomy is vile.

The new bill a pair of freshman Republican House lawmakers are planning to introduce would ban abortion and criminalize it, along with in-vitro fertilization and certain types of contraception. The measure’s filing was first reported by WEWS. The bill is meant as a direct challenge to the state reproductive rights amendment passed by 57% of Ohio voters in 2023.

THE GATEWAY PUNDIT

The Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, House Bill 370, points to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws’ to protect the life of preborn persons.”

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion said in a press release, “There were over 22,000 babies in Ohio murdered through clinic-based abortions in 2023, with at least 45% of those abortions taking place through non-surgical methods such as abortion pills. Ohio women are increasingly seeking medication abortions instead of surgical procedures.”

LIFE & LIBERTY PODCAST with SHARAYAH COLTER

In this episode of the Life & Liberty Podcast, Sharayah Colter talks with Bradley Pierce, president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. Bradley’s aim is to see all humans treated equally and protected by law equally, whether born or preborn. A committed Christian, Bradley appeals to God and Scripture as the guiding force in directing the fight to defend the sanctity of life.

YOURNEWS

Ohio State Representatives Levi Dean and Johnathan Newman this week introduced House Bill 370, known as the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, a sweeping proposal to abolish abortion by granting full legal rights and protections to preborn children beginning at fertilization.

In a press release, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion emphasized that in 2023 alone, more than 22,000 abortions were performed in Ohio, nearly half through non-surgical methods such as abortion pills. “Merely banning abortion clinics and doctors will not fully abolish abortion unless self-induced abortion is also addressed,” the group stated.

NEWSWEEK

State Representatives Levi Dean and Johnathan Newman introduced the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act on Wednesday. The bill would grant legal protections from the moment of fertilization, meaning abortion would be treated as homicide, in a challenge to an abortion rights amendment to the State Constitution that voters approved in 2023.

While Republicans in Ohio have historically passed abortion restrictions and bans, legislation in the past has been aimed at penalizing abortion providers rather than the people who have them.

PROBLEMATIC with SARAH STOCK

Sarah Stock speaks with Ben Zeisloft, the communications director for the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. The two discuss the “second victim narrative” prevalent in the pro-life movement and whether or not women should be penalized for abortion.

CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

Reps. Levi Dean, R-Xenia, and Johnathan Newman, R-Troy, are introducing the “Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act.” The bill would treat abortion like homicide by granting criminal and civil protections from the point of fertilization. The bill also seeks to end in vitro fertilization, where an egg and sperm are fertilized outside the body, and could affect some contraception.

“IVF thrives on its ability to treat human beings as something lesser,” said Austin Beigel, president of End Abortion Ohio. “When you do identify all human beings as people under the law, what will happen is IVF will effectively end itself.”

ABC NEWS

Republican lawmakers in Ohio are planning on introducing a bill on Wednesday that would ban almost all abortions and criminalize the procedure. The “Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act” would overturn the amendment to the Ohio constitution, voted on in 2023, that establishes “an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion” before viability.

“In many times in our country’s history, the majority of people have desired evil things. We have discriminated horribly against the Black man and woman, and people wanted that,” he continued. “So, I have no qualms about saying I oppose the majority of the will of the people when the people desire something that is evil.”

THE INDEPENDENT

Representatives Levi Dean and Johnathan Newman are set to introduce the "Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act” on Wednesday, which would classify abortion as homicide. Austin Beigel, founder of End Abortion Ohio, told The Independent the bill will “make a positive affirmation of the personhood of the pre-born.”

In 2023, Ohio residents voted to enshrine abortion access in the state Constitution. Since then, judges have struck down legislation that seeks to limit or ban abortion access despite the amendment.

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

Rather than casting all women as victims, we should simply state that anyone who willfully partakes in the death of a preborn baby has committed murder, whether that person was the father, the mother, or a third-party abortionist. When pro-life entities deny that simple position, they not only act inconsistently with their professed belief that abortion is murder, but they create a blanket license to murder a baby, so long as the mother herself is the murderer.

We either believe that abortion is murder, or we do not. We either believe that preborn babies are image-bearers of God, or we do not. We either want to abolish abortion, or we do not. Walsh and other conservatives are seeing that reality, and pro-life groups should follow suit.

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

When the Southern Baptists assemble in the coming days in Dallas, they will once more consider how they can oppose the murder of preborn babies in our nation. But in order to most effectively accomplish that task, they may have to disband the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, their own public policy arm, which has shockingly subverted efforts to end abortion.

Southern Baptists want to end abortion across the country. They correctly view preborn babies as image-bearers of God who should be protected by the same laws that protect born people. They have made this stance clear, and yet the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the institution Southern Baptists trust to wield their considerable influence in the public square, has not only been derelict in advancing that stance, but has consciously subverted that stance.

THE SENTINEL

South Carolina Republican State Representative Rob Harris requested a hearing on the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act once state lawmakers return to Columbia next year.

One analysis from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion warned that over 15,000 abortions were conducted by South Carolina residents in 2023: more than 4,800 babies were murdered in the state, another 1,500 were murdered with abortion pills, and 8,700 were murdered out of state.

GIVE ME LIBERTY PODCAST with RYAN HELFENBEIN

Standing for Freedom Center Executive Director Ryan Helfenbein and Bradley Pierce discuss the need to establish equal protection for preborn babies and abolish abortion across America.

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

These lawmakers and lobbyists should have learned that their political four-dimensional chess is already a proven failure, as shown by the passage of Amendment 3 in their deep-red state.

“While many of these Republican lawmakers and pro-life lobbyists may think they are employing prudential strategy in crafting a ballot measure they believe will pass, in the hope of mitigating the evil of Amendment 3, they are violating commands from God to exercise judgment without partiality,” the Foundation to Abolish Abortion added. “They are practicing another kind of child sacrifice by withholding legal protection from some children in the hopes of saving others.”

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

Oklahoma is ostensibly one of the most conservative states in the union, yet over the past several years, Republican lawmakers in the state have failed to truly end abortion.

But when four elected Republicans in the Oklahoma Senate voted against equal protection of the laws for preborn babies earlier this year, they were censured by the Oklahoma Republican Party, signaling that the conservative grassroots have finally had enough of their failure.