Ohio Pastor Defends Abortion Ahead of Critical Vote

As Ohioans prepare to decide where the state stands on anti-abortion laws, an Ohio pastor is defending access to safe, affordable and legal abortions ahead of voting day.

Ohio's Issue 1, an abortion amendment or the 'Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion Initiative', will be voted on November 7 and if approved would add abortion rights to the state constitution. This proposed abortion amendment would establish an "individual right to one's own reproductive medical treatment including but not limited to abortion" and create legal protections for those individuals, among other guarantees like for contraception and fertility treatment.

This comes after Ohio's now-paused heartbeat law, signed into law in 2019 by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, offered no exception for incest or rape and prohibited virtually every Ohio abortion at the six-week mark. Ohio's abortion ban was in effect for 82 days before a Hamilton County judge put it on hold as the issue is now being taken directly to the people to vote on.

Reverend Tim Ahrens, a senior minister at First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in downtown Columbus wrote an opinion column published by The Columbus Dispatch on Tuesday and stated his support of adding the state constitutional amendment protecting women's reproductive rights.

"Since early October, I have had the unique position of being the only Ohio religious leader in an ad running statewide on TV and radio in support of adding a constitutional amendment to the Ohio Constitution protecting women's reproductive rights... I believe in access to safe, affordable and legal abortions," Ahrens wrote.

Ahrens continues to explain how the abortion amendment will offer bodily autonomy while also calling attention to those who have strongly opposed him and abortion rights stating, "All of these have come from 'Christians' who have taken it upon themselves to be judge and jury over my eternal soul. The people opposing Issue 1 have shown me their true colors—hate in the name of Jesus."

However, while speaking on the issue, the pastor acknowledged both anti-abortion and pro-choice advocates, noting that the decision to have an abortion is not taken lightly.

"Some have been emotionally overwhelmed by this, and some have not been. Some grieve and some celebrate their hard decision. No person I have ever known as a pastor, has approached abortion as a form of birth control. No one has made this hard choice lightly," Ahrens wrote.

Meanwhile, despite praise from abortion rights groups, some anti-abortion advocates are criticizing the amendment's language.

The Ohio Right to Life, an anti-abortion organization's website, said the proposed amendment is "particularly dangerous because of the intentionally broad and vague language in it," claiming that the result of this broad language will be the "dismantling of parental rights and all common sense abortion regulation."

Newsweek has reached out to Ohio Right to Life via email for comment.

Additionally, in April, DeWine called the proposed abortion access amendment too liberal for Ohio, but urged lawmakers to look at the law to see if it was "sustainable."

"It doesn't do any good to have a law on the books and then voters say, 'Well, we don't like that law,' and have it be overridden by a law that doesn't really fit Ohio," he said at the time, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

However, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, a coalition of statewide reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, has previously pushed back on the "heartbeat bill" by earning 495,938 valid signatures to place the citizen-initiated constitutional amendment on the 2023 General Election ballot.

"Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion free from government interference," Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights Executive Committee members Lauren Blauvelt and Dr. Lauren Beene said in a press release.

Newsweek has reached out to Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights via email for comment.

For Ahrens, he believes this constitutional amendment will advance the protection of women and families across Ohio.

"I believe the government should not be in the business of making decisions about reproductive rights for any of us. No matter what your gender, I believe every person I encounter, including myself, has the right and responsibility to care for their own body," Ahrens wrote.