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Pictured are Ohio Governor John Kasich (wearing blue tie) and President-elect Donald Trump (wearing red tie)
www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-Some Democrats, pro-choice proponents, and greater Cleveland activists are outraged with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who vetoed a state legislative measure that would have outlawed abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected while simultaneously approving a state law that precludes them after five months of pregnancy.
It is the latter action that has abortion advocates upset, as they are glad of the veto of the heartbeat legislation but have relentlessly fought also against the five-months or 20-weeks limitation bill on abortion.
Had the heartbeat bill been approved by Kasich, the legislation, which legal experts say will have difficulty passing constitutional muster, would have been unprecedented, and the most strenuous abortion mandate. It would have banned abortion after roughly a month and a half of pregnancy.
Supporters of that bill, mainly Republicans and pro-life advocates, want the Republican controlled state legislature to override the veto.
While Democrats in general, and abortion rights advocates are elated relative to governor's veto, they are furious about the abortion legislation that the governor signed into law on Tuesday.
They also called into question, Kasich's record on the abortion issue at large.
"The 18 anti-choice measures that Kasich has signed into law over the past six years have done nothing to make abortion safer or to support a woman's decision making," Ohio Democratic Women's Caucus Charwoman Kathy DiCristofaro said in a press release Wednesday to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's Black digital news leader. "They simply restrict the information that a woman can receive, delay her, force her to take test she doesn't need, allow people to harass her, and force clinics to close."
Protests erupted earlier this month after state lawmakers passed both bills, the heart beat bill of which has been introduced several times in previous years only to subsequently fall to the wast-side,
The election of Donald Trump as president coupled with his promise to nominate a conservative to replace Antonin Scalia heightened the stakes, and are an impetus for the present legislative action in the swing state of Ohio, pundits have said.
The new legislation is irresponsible, say Ohio Democratic Party leaders.
"Today Kasich put Trump's vision into law," said David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. "There is no exception for a woman who has been raped or been the victim of incest."
Pepper went on to say, "This is not moderate. This is not compassionate."
Kasich did not support Trump in his bid for the White-house, and has been a frequent critic.
A billionaire real estate mogul who has never held public office, Trump won Ohio in his pursuit of the presidency, and his victory has consequences, though his foes continue to fight against what they say are his anti-female and elitist policies.
Greater Cleveland community activist Valerie Robinson, president of Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor and a member of the Cleveland-based Imperial Women Coalition, which is led by Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman, called both the fetal heartbeat bill that Kasich rejected and the abortion law that passed scrutiny by governor "unconscionable and unconstitutional."
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
