There was more good news last week for those who believe in women’s reproductive freedom.
An Ohio appeals court judge struck down the bill defunding Planned Parenthood, which Governor John Kasich signed into law in May. That bill said that an organization that was involved in any way with providing abortion — which, by the way, is still legal, though you wouldn’t know it by the way some politicians carry on — could not receive any funding for OTHER activities, such as Planned Parenthood’s “Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies” initiative which works to address Ohio’s appalling infant mortality rate. But hey — BORN babies. Pfft. We don’t care about them!
This follows a decision a few weeks ago by an appeals court judge that the state could not close a clinic for not having a transfer agreement with a “local” hospital, allowing the only remaining abortion clinic in Toledo to stay open. After Kasich and the legislature stuffed a provision in the budget bill barring public hospitals from making such agreements (which the expanding number of Catholic Hospitals will not do, severely shrinking options), the clinic forged an agreement with a hospital in Michigan 50 miles away. And the judge also ruled that putting such a provision in the budget bill, when it involves no appropriations, is unconstitutional.
Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office said they did not know yet if they would appeal the latest decision, but you can pretty much count on it. Using public tax dollars to defend his own personal religious beliefs defines Mike DeWine. He was a key driver behind taking the Hobby Lobby case to the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing private business owners to use their religious beliefs to deny women health-care coverage for contraception. He also took a stand (again with our tax dollars) to fight against marriage equality in the Obergefell vs Hodges case.
As Wikipedia says, “Because one partner, John Arthur, was terminally ill … they wanted the Ohio Registrar to identify the other partner, James Obergefell, as his surviving spouse on his death certificate, based on their marriage in Maryland. The local Ohio Registrar agreed that discriminating against the same-sex married couple was unconstitutional, but the state attorney general’s office announced plans to defend Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban.”
After years of using public tax dollars to try to block the rights of the citizens providing those dollars — he’s also worked assiduously to bloc voter rights, in partnership with secretary of voter suppress … I mean STATE …. Jon Husted — he has now expressed interest in being our next governor. And so has Jon Husted who has worked tirelessly to disenfranchise voters on nitpicky technicalities.
Why is Ohio fighting these costly battles to prevent citizens from exercising their rights? It’s because DeWine and Husted were elected in 2010 and reelected in 2014 when Democrats did not come to the polls. It’s become almost an article of faith — and one borne out by the results — that Democrats are less motivated than Republicans to vote in non-presidential elections. Republicans take the long view, knowing that if they stay the course, they can chip away at people’s freedoms. Democrats throw up their hands when they don’t get everything they want and insist they can’t vote when they aren’t “inspired” and there’s “nobody to vote for.”
Now, I am not going to the predictable place and lecture Bernie Sanders supporters about the need to turn out and vote for Hillary. There is no need because most of them already plan to. They get it, they really do, despite some initial grumbling. Hillary will most likely win, which is great and will make a huge difference in the areas mentioned above — women’s rights, LGBT rights, voter rights. She’ll vehemently defend them while Trump would … well, who knows what he would do? But his running mate Mike Pence is one of the most homophobic and misogynist politicians out there. (In fact, it’s been too little noted how revolutionary it is that Hillary has not just openly campaigned on defending women’s reproductive freedom without limitations but has actually used the word “abortion,” once considered sort of a third rail of politics for those on the the pro-choice side).
But the really, really important election to reverse the damage done by Republicans who think our private business is their business is 2018. After two terms in which Kasich conceived and signed more anti-choice legislation than any governor in the country, we need a fresh start. And then hopefully, thanks to redistricting reform passed in 2014, in 2022 we will get a more evenly balanced legislature that might take up issues like infrastructure repair and equitable, adequate education funding instead of spending all its time looking for ways to limit abortions and lift limits on guns. But if we don’t vote when there’s no presidential race topping the ballot, it won’t happen.