ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

How Far Will the Left Go?

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF


As the "progressive" Left continues its path to utopia, its becoming more and more clear that theirs is a path to destruction.

Ohio is showing the country what the proverbial next step should look like regarding abortion and transgenderism.

Yes, it can happen in your state too.

Be informed, not misled.

A proposed Ohio constitutional amendment would make the state a haven for no-limits abortion and other procedures.

Other procedures include extreme transgender surgeries.

A cultural disaster.

The National Review reported yesterday, "Two abortion-advocacy groups, Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, are attempting to place on the November 2023 ballot a proposed state constitutional amendment that would effectively obliterate most limits to abortion or sex-change surgery, among its other far-reaching consequences. The proposal was approved by the Ohio Ballot Board today, after which the groups will begin the process of collecting the signatures required to make the November 7 ballot."

The news media has predictably framed the proposed amendment as a means of adding a right to abortion to the state constitution.

That, of course, is very misleading.

If it became law, the measure would go much further than these groups’ collective desire to repeal Ohio’s heartbeat law, which generally prohibits abortion upon the detection of fetal heartbeat (typically around six weeks) while still allowing doctors to prevent the death or impairment of major bodily functions of the mother. (The statute was blocked in the state’s lower courts, and the Ohio supreme court is expected to decide its ultimate fate.) 

Much can be learned by this Leftist attempt in Ohio.

The proposed amendment would outlaw virtually any restrictions on abortion and all other procedures, including sex-change surgeries, that touch on reproduction, for both adults and minors. It would cancel out not only parental-consent laws but also mere parental notification for minors’ abortions or sex-change surgeries; strike down health protections for people of all ages who undergo these procedures, including requirements that a qualified physician performs them; and erase any meaningful limits on late-term abortions.

You will not be surprised that the proposal’s language is unconstrained. 

Its drafters want it that way. The coalition promoting it includes groups like the ACLU that have taken extreme positions not only on abortion but also on a wide range of cultural issues.

And beneath it all, is an overarching hostility to parents who would disagree.

A natural reading would extend to any medical procedure that involves the human reproductive system, including sex-change surgery. The language also applies to individuals without any age qualification, so the proposal makes no distinction between adults and minors. 

Additional language would deny parents the right to any intervention on behalf of their children that would discourage them from obtaining the procedure in question.

Transgenderism and abortion are now "health care."

Legislators in over two dozen states are currently debating measures that would impose limits on what procedures could be performed to alter the appearance and sexual characteristics of minors to align with their identified sex instead of their biological sex. Whatever their preferred policy, many people on both sides of that debate would agree that such procedures should not be performed on children without parental consent. 

The proposed Ohio amendment would turn this common-sense familial principle upside down, insisting that every minor must have access to such procedures and that there is nothing an objecting parent can do about it. Any individual who tries to assist a minor in pursuing such procedures would be protected by law, while a parent who objects would be cut out of the decision-making process, perhaps even penalized.

The Ohio proposal is so broadly worded that it would prevent the legislature not only from requiring the consent of parents before their child pursues a particular procedure but also from requiring mere notification of parents — well short of the power to veto their child’s decision — before the procedure takes place. After all, requiring even notification has the effect of “directly or indirectly” burdening or interfering with the decision in question.

Even beyond that, the state legislature would find its hands tied from passing any number of measures to protect baby and mother alike so long as they could be characterized as abortion restrictions.

The proposed Ohio constitutional amendment would make the state a haven for no-limits abortion and other procedures. It would become a likely jurisdiction to harbor a future Kermit Gosnell, whether he is a practitioner of abortion, sex-change surgery, or other procedures under the umbrella of reproductive care. Complete strangers who assist children in obtaining life-altering procedures would find themselves on the right side of the law, while parents who try to protect their children would be deemed to have run afoul of the law.

If this amendment makes it to the ballot and Ohioans allow it to become part of the state constitution, their elected representatives in Columbus will be powerless to pass any statute that would undo the damage. If voters do not reject this proposal, they can expect to suffer its extreme consequences well into the indefinite future.

About the money. Who is funding the transgender movement?

Five years ago Jennifer Bilek wrote an in-depth article for The Federalist that, among other things, exposes where the big money comes from to fund the LGBT movement.

The primary source of money for the LGBT movement began coming to this movement around 2013---ten years ago. 

The sources are many, but this is the primary list of people funding the movement beginning back in 2013:

  • Jennifer Pritzker (a male who identifies as transgender)
  • George Soros
  • Martine Rothblatt (a male who identifies as transgender and transhumanist)
  • Tim Gill (a gay man)
  • Drummond Pike
  • Warren and Peter Buffett
  • Jon Stryker (a gay man)
  • Mark Bonham (a gay man)
  • Ric Weiland (a deceased gay man whose philanthropy is still LGBT-oriented). 
Most of these billionaires fund the transgender lobby and organizations through their own organizations, including corporations. Some fund the LGBT through their myriad companies, multiplying their contributions many times over in ways that are difficult to track. 

These funders often go through anonymous funding organizations such as Tides Foundation, founded and operated by Pike. Large corporations, philanthropists, and organizations can send enormous sums of money to the Tides Foundation, specify the direction the funds are to go and have the funds get to their destination anonymously. Tides Foundation creates a legal firewall and tax shelter for foundations and funds political campaigns, often using legally dubious tactics.

Takeaway

Jennifer Bilek concludes: 

The massive medical and technological infrastructure expansion for a tiny (but growing) fraction of the population with gender dysphoria, along with the money being funneled to this project by those heavily invested in the medical and technology industries, seems to make sense only in the context of expanding markets for changing the human body. Trans activists are already clamoring for a change from “gender dysphoria” to “gender incongruence” in the next revision to the international register of mental diagnosis codes, the ICD-11. The push is on for insurance-paid hormones and surgeries for anyone who believes his or her body is in any way “incongruent” with his or her “gender identity.”

Pray for America.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.