Reader viewpoint: Issue 1 distortions

Letter to the Editor,

Ohio voters face a grave decision this fall. Issue 1 distortions bombard us daily.

It goes beyond returning Ohio law to Roe v. Wade days. Ohio still has 24-hour waiting period informed consent (risks explained by abortion provider) requirements such as access for hospital transfers when needed and parental permission for minors. Issue 1 says that regarding an “individual’s voluntary right” to abortion, the state cannot “directly or indirectly burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with or discriminate against” this right to abortion. Ohio’s standards could be eliminated as a “burden.”

Parental rights for minors are directly threatened by the intentionally broad and vague language of Issue 1. Paragraph 1, Section 22 begins ”Every individual has a right to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions, included but not limited todecisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.” Using “individual” (not woman) unlocks a minor’s “right” to abortion. Parents regularly sign permission slips. Should we vote for a constitutional amendment possibly permitting a minor to end an unexpected pregnancy without parental knowledge? The word “individual” also opens a legal pathway for female or male minors to pursue gender-changing surgeries as a “reproductive decision.”

Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy care won’t change, another distortion. Not all miscarriages require medical care. Ectopic pregnancies are a true medical emergency. When a baby implants in a woman’s fallopian tube and not her uterus, the tube will burst as the baby grows, unless surgically removed, saving the mother’s life. The death of the baby is not intentional but a tragic side effect. Suggestions that a no vote for Issue 1 would change ectopic pregnancy care is nonsense and a smokescreen to blur the truth.

Issue 1 goes too far in the lack of safeguards for women, the denial of parental rights and the enshrinement of abortion in the Ohio Constitution. Please vote no.

Judy Kramer-Burnham

Dover