To the editor,
“They’re coming for your kids” is a mantra that one hears on television and radio.
In 2022, a ten-year-old girl was forced to travel to Indiana to procure an abortion after being raped. The doctor who performed the abortion was later put under investigation for saving the girl’s life. Ohio Right to Life opposed the abortion. The communications director of ORTL seemed (even for a hardline anti-abortion activist) out of touch with reality to say the least. This same spokesperson was mercifully fired last month for creating a storm of bigotry directed against both Jews (often targeted by the extreme right) and, ironically, Catholics.
To be absolutely clear, Pope John Paul I, the immediate predecessor of the most anti-abortion pope in history (John Paul II) supported birth control and even IVF. Indeed, one of his first public acts was blessing a woman who conceived via IVF. Both facts are attested by one of the most eminent writers in modern Catholic history, Justus George Lawler (citing an article in National Catholic Reporter, September 5, 2003).
Ohio Right to Life is falling apart. As Jesus said, “a divided house cannot stand”. As the book of Daniel also says, “the writing is on the wall” for the extremist organization.
J.D. Vance, a hardline pro-lifer, recently had a bill shut down that would have banned mask mandates at airports, which undoubtedly saved lives three years ago. Even the Wahhabi clerics in Saudi Arabia saw no issue with mask mandates (for men as well!). That makes these extremists more hardline than even fundamentalist Islamists. We cannot afford to go back to the days when women were burned at the stake for having a miscarriage or when men were drawn and quartered for questioning the Church. A no vote on Issue 1 is a giant leap backwards.
There is no incompatibility between being religious and voting Yes on issue 1. I can think of many Protestant denominations and liberal Jewish organizations that have not come out against it but whose clerics have publicly criticized the Pharisaism of the Pro-Life movement. The Pope has no authority to judge someone’s sins, Jesus confirms this in John’s Gospel.
If one is truly interested in abolishing abortion in toto, then one must dramatically increase the overall quality of life for those who see abortion as a way out of either poverty or and lack of preparedness.
Bill Kennedy IV
Bowling Green
