COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two lawmakers in Ohio have introduced a bill that would completely abolish abortion in the state without exceptions.
H.B. 565, also known as the “abolition of abortion” bill, was officially filed on Monday by Rep. Ron Hood, R-Ashville, and Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, with the backing of 18 sponsors.
“We are declaring in the state of Ohio that life begins at conception. Therefore, any attempts to murder an unborn child from the time of conception is in fact a murder and falls under all the existing murder statutes in the state of Ohio,” Hood explained in a recent interview with the Ohio Pro-Life League.
He said that this type of legislation is needed because most pro-life bills merely regulate abortion and allow the killing to continue.
“We’re losing 20,000 babies a year in the state of Ohio. These bills are not going to change that,” Hood stated. “Unless we pass a life at conception bill, we’re not going to save these babies.”
Hood’s bill defines the preborn as an individual from fertilization, and bans the murder of the unborn without exceptions.
Abortionists who take the life of an unborn child may face both criminal and civil penalties. The woman on whom the abortion was performed will not be charged or face civil liability if she “(a) makes a report; (b) provides information during an investigation; [and] (c) participates in a hearing.”
Hospitals are equally prohibited from performing an abortion, and babies who die in situations where attempts must be made to save both mother and child will not be considered to have been unlawfully terminated.
Abortion “rights” groups have already decried the legislation, calling those who oppose killing children in the womb “extremists.”
“Anti-choice extremists from the Ohio Statehouse to the White House are lining up their dominoes to topple Roe v. Wade and punish those who seek or provide abortion care,” NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said in a statement. “NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and our supporters will be relentless in our efforts to stop this dangerous agenda in its tracks.”
The co-sponsors of the bill include state Reps. Thomas Brinkman, R-Mt. Lookout; Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg; Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson; John Becker, R-Union Township; Craig Riedel, R-Defiance; Candace Keller, R-Middletown; Andy Thompson, R-Marietta; Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster; and Scott Wiggam, R-Wooster.
In December 2016, Republican Gov. John Kasich vetoed a bill that would have banned abortion when a heartbeat is detected, stating that he didn’t believe the state would succeed in a legal challenge. He also advised that he subsequently didn’t want any legal fees going to pro-abortion groups.
As previously reported, in an introductory lecture to his course on obstetrics in 1854, Philadelphia Dr. Hugh Lennox Hodge said:
“So low, gentleman, is the moral sense of community on this subject. So ignorant are even the greater number of individuals, that even mothers in many instances shrink not at the commission of this crime, but will voluntarily destroy their own progeny, in violation of every natural sentiment, and in opposition to the laws of God and man,” he said.
“The procuring abortion is ‘a base and unmanly act,’” Hodge also said, quoting in part text from a court ruling of his day. “It is a crime against the natural feelings of man, against the welfare and safety of females, against the peace and prosperity of society, against the divine command ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ It is murder.”
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