Radical Anti-Life Gender Justice Group Backing Ohio Ballot Initiative Revealed to Be Pushing End to ‘Unethical’ Parental Involvement Laws

Susan Berry, PhD

Tweets by a key leftist organization pushing the Ohio abortion ballot initiative that could end parental involvement in minors’ medical decisions reveal that the goal of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE) is to cut parents out of their children’s lives.

Protect Women Ohio (PWO), a self-described “coalition of concerned family and life leaders, parents, health and medical experts, and faith leaders in Ohio,” posted a thread to Twitter Tuesday showing URGE has been “working to abolish parental consent and notification laws for years.”

The parental rights and pro-life coalition seeks to block radical leftist organizations like URGE from rewriting Ohio’s Constitution via a ballot initiative that would eliminate parental notification and consent requirements for minors obtaining abortions and gender transition hormone drugs and surgeries.

URGE is part of the coalition called Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a group of statewide abortion rights and justice organizations that spreads a narrative that they are working to keep “the government” out of “reproductive freedom.”

The group regularly promotes “abortion positive” missives, such as “Being #AbortionPositive at URGE means celebrating all abortions, no exceptions” and “Abortions are GOOD! Abortions are LIBERATING!”

Another tweet declares parental involvement laws are “unethical” adding they “must be abolished.”

In addition to URGE, members of the ballot committee of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom include the ACLU of Ohio, Abortion Fund of Ohio, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Ohio Women’s Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Preterm-Cleveland, and Pro-Choice Ohio.

“Collectively, these organizations represent Ohioans from across the state and key constituencies, including frontline providers, abortion funds, young people, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, and decades of deep investment in Ohio community, care, and power,” the coalition states on its website.

URGE’s tweets over the last several years show the group backs allowing the transgender medical industry to assist minors with “gender-affirming surgeries and care” and opposes laws that would require school personnel to notify parents of their child’s gender dysphoria.

URGE’s mission and values statement clearly focuses on indoctrinating young people into its political narrative.

The group “envisions a liberated world where we can live with justice, love freely, express our gender and sexuality, and define and create families of our choosing.”

“To achieve our vision of liberation, URGE builds power and sustains a young people’s movement for reproductive justice by centering the leadership of young people of color who are women, queer, trans, nonbinary, and people of low income,” the group explains.

“As a state-driven national organization, URGE organizes our communities, provides a political home for young people, advocates for meaningful policy change, and shifts culture, working in states where the challenges and opportunities are greatest,” the organization describes further its activities.

A separate page of URGE’s website is titled “A Young People’s RJ [Reproductive Justice] Policy Agenda,” and asserts:

Young, progressive voices are calling for policies that will help them build a future that is just and inclusive. Yet bans on abortion coverage, inadequate or nonexistent sex education, state and interpersonal violence, discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, and stigma against our bodies, genders, sex, and decisions all make it harder for young people to live freely and with dignity.

URGE’s political agenda for young people includes these key “priorities” for “transforming systems and institutions to promote reproductive justice”:

  • Real Abortion Access
  • Sexuality Education
  • Democracy Reform
  • Economic Justice
  • Decriminalize & Create Safe Communities
  • Immigrant Justice

As a report by Protect Women Ohio notes, URGE “has received millions in funding from left-wing dark-money groups, including the New Venture Fund, the Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Planned Parenthood, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation,” and has aligned with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to push the anti-parent, anti-life amendment in Ohio.

In March, Protect Women Ohio observed the ACLU has “unequivocally declared war on parental rights in Ohio” by admitting parental rights to notification and consent for minors’ abortions and gender transition surgeries will be on the chopping block if the amendment is approved.

The Statehouse News Bureau reported on March 15:

The amendment does not mention gender affirming surgery at all.

The language of the amendment is also silent when it comes to how passage of it would affect Ohio’s existing abortion laws when it comes to minors. In February, when asked whether the existing law requiring women under 18 to get parental consent or a court order before getting an abortion would be wiped out if voters approve this law, Jessie Hill, an attorney for the ACLU of Ohio, said some existing laws could remain on the books.

“When you pass a constitutional amendment, it doesn’t just automatically erase everything and start over,” Hill said, and then acknowledged, “But it would mean that laws that conflict with it cannot be enforced, should not be enforced.”

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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “URGE Activist” by URGE.

 

 

 

          

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