SHoWLE Disappointed Some Local Legislators Want To Subvert The Will Of The Voters

The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie are dis­mayed and dis­ap­point­ed that sev­er­al local mem­bers of the Ohio House of Representatives signed on to a let­ter to announce their inten­tion to sub­vert the will of the vot­ers who passed State Issue 1 on November 7th.

The Ohio House Pro-life Caucus issued a press release on November 8th that said in part:

“We will do every­thing in our pow­er to pre­vent our laws from being removed based upon per­cep­tion of intent…”

Northwest Ohio mem­bers who signed on to the let­ter include Josh Williams (41), Derek Merrin (42), Susan Manchester (78), Roy Klopfenstein (82), Riordan McClain (87), and Gary Click (88).

State Issue 1, which passed with 56% of the vote on November 7th, added repro­duc­tive rights to the Ohio con­sti­tu­tion which will remove many of the anti-abortion laws that peo­ple like the pro-life cau­cus have passed in recent years. The main law to be removed will be the heart­beat law which banned abor­tion after 6 weeks with no excep­tions. Many tar­get­ed reg­u­la­tions that impose an undue bur­den on women get­ting abor­tions will also be removed. These reg­u­la­tions were added as part of the bud­get process years ago and weren’t sub­ject to ref­er­en­dum.

Members of the state gov­ern­ment take an oath of office that says they will defend the Ohio con­sti­tu­tion. SHoWLE feels that if pro-life mem­bers from NW Ohio can’t move on and feel the need to vio­late their oath in order to deny women the right to make their own med­ical deci­sions, then they need to resign imme­di­ate­ly.

Elected offi­cials ask all us to obey the laws they pass so they should obey the will of the vot­ers even if they dis­agree with that deci­sion.

“We under­stand that such an effort isn’t gain­ing trac­tion in the Ohio House,” SHoWLE President Douglas Berger stat­ed. “But we feel the need to call out the rep­re­sen­ta­tives who seem to dis­re­spect the vot­ers and democ­ra­cy. We are dis­ap­point­ed so many in Northwest Ohio signed on to that let­ter and they need to do bet­ter.”

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About Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie

The mis­sion of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is to pro­vide a sup­port­ive local com­mu­ni­ty for human­ists and oth­er non­the­ists, while pro­mot­ing an eth­i­cal, rea­son­able, and sec­u­lar approach to life through edu­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, out­reach, activism, and social events.

We envi­sion a Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan where sec­u­lar peo­ple are respect­ed and inte­grat­ed in broad­er soci­ety, live val­ues of rea­son and com­pas­sion, and enjoy a friend­ly human­ist com­mu­ni­ty.

Media Contacts

Douglas Berger — President
567–215-2694

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Additional Information on this top­ic:

Some Ohio GOP law­mak­ers attempt­ing to under­mine demo­c­ra­t­ic process after vot­ers pro­tect abor­tion

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