Janet Porter (née Folger)

Janet Porter is pulling out all the stops to pass her anti-choice Heartbeat Bill in Ohio, using children with teddy bears, fetus testimony, prayer rallies and planes to urge the State Senate to vote on her bill, which has already passed the State House. But so far, her only accomplishment appears to be dividing anti-choice activists and irritating Republican lawmakers.

To show popular support for her legislation, Porter’s group Faith 2 Action commissioned a poll which showed a that whopping “64 percent of Ohioans agreed with the Heartbeat Bill while only 20 percent disagreed with it—more than a three to one margin.” The group used Wenzel Strategies, a polling company that claims Sarah Palin had a good chance at becoming the Democratic nominee for president, which also found that pluralities of Democrats, independents and Republicans alike all backed the Heartbeat bill. According to Porter, the legislation’s broad support is reason to give to put it up for a vote in the State Senate:

"Two-thirds of Ohioans, 8 out of 10 Republicans, 7 out of 10 Independents, and Democrats by a 5-3 margin favor the Heartbeat Bill (H.B. 125) becoming law," said Janet Porter, president of Faith2Action. "The people have spoken across the board: It's time to bring the Heartbeat Bill to a committee and to a vote."

Fritz Wenzel, president of Wenzel Strategies stated, “Given today’s deeply divided political climate, it is unusual and remarkable when a public opinion survey finds a huge majority supporting one side of a political issue, but that’s exactly what we have in these results regarding the Heartbeat Bill in Ohio. The popularity of this measure crosses all political, gender, age, and regional boundaries in Ohio, and is indicative of deep support for this issue...

"Election history teaches us that leaders who ignore such strong public opinion do so at their own political peril. The fact that more likely voting Democrats, Republicans, and independents support the bill than oppose it, and the fact that the intensity of support in favor of this issue far outstrips the intensity of those who oppose it is a strong indication there are many more reasons for Ohio state senators to support it than to oppose it,” added Wenzel.

Contrast those striking findings with the poll released today by Quinnipiac University, which found that not only do “fifty percent of Ohio voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases” but that forty-six percent of voters oppose the Heartbeat bill, while forty-five percent favor it.

While the Quinnipiac poll, which Porter derided as “biased,” still shows a statistical tie on the public’s view of the legislation, it completely undermines Porter’s claim that “the people have spoken across the board”:

Ohio voters are divided 45 - 46 percent in their support for a bill before the State Legislature that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Republicans support the measure 63 - 31 percent, while Democrats are opposed by a mirror-image 62 - 30 percent, with independent voters split 47 - 46 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. There is no gender or age gap.

…

"Abortion remains perhaps the most divisive issue in the nation and there is an almost even split among Ohio voters over the fetal heartbeat bill," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Despite a partisan split over the issue, where Republicans support the measure 2-1 while Democrats oppose it 2-1, lower income voters, who tend to be Democrats, support the bill while high-income voters, who tend to be Republican, oppose it."

Fifty percent of Ohio voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases while 44 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases.

A member of Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is introducing two of the most radical anti-choice bills in the country, a personhood measure to give legal status to zygotes and a ‘heartbeat law’ that would also effectively ban abortion. Like in Ohio, more established anti-choice groups are wary of passing such clearly unconstitutional laws and are instead encouraging the legislature to defund Planned Parenthood. The Omaha World Herald reports that State Sen. Mark Christensen is proposing both measures, and that the “heartbeat bill is expected to be introduced in the Kansas Legislature next month”:

At least one Nebraska lawmaker is looking at proposals for the new legislative session that would drastically limit legal abortion in the state.

One measure would declare that life — and legal status — begins at fertilization. The other would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is usually six to eight weeks into pregnancy.

"I'm more than willing to introduce them," said State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial. "I'm willing to take on a fight."

The Heartbeat bill, crafted by Religious Right activist Janet Porter, has yet to face a vote in the Ohio State Senate because supporters amended the bill to make the bill even more onerous:

The proposed changes include the deletion of the word “viability” from a section of the bill. That would mean the heartbeat is the only indicator needed to prevent an abortion, not whether the fetus would survive outside the womb.

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That change seems to run counter to testimony from obstetricians opposed to the bill who said in some births a fetus has been detected to have little if any chance of surviving once born. Other proposed changes:

• Add language that the state has a legitimate interest “from the outset of the pregnancy” in protecting the health of a woman and “the life of the fetus that may become a child.” Forte said the principle comes from a U.S. Supreme Court decision. However, the language possibly could be read to mean the state’s interest starts at conception.

• Clarifies that for a woman to make “an informed choice about whether to continue her pregnancy, the pregnant woman has a legitimate interest in knowing the likelihood of the fetus surviving to full term birth based upon the presence of cardiac activity.”

• Requires the presence or absence of a fetal heartbeat be recorded in a pregnant woman’s medical record, along with the methods used to test for a heartbeat, the date and time of the test, and the results.

Meanwhile, trouble in the legislature for the Heartbeat bill hasn’t slowed down efforts by Personhood Ohio to put the anti-choice law on the ballot in 2012:

Campaign officials have submitted the first round of signatures to Attorney General Mike DeWine, who has said he will certify it. "By law, he has to certify it within a couple of weeks," reports Dr. Michael Johnston, who is heading up the campaign. "So by the beginning of 2012, we'll be ready for our statewide campaign to gather the 380,000 signatures necessary to put the Ohio personhood amendment on the ballot."

If passed, the amendment would end abortion in the state.

"We are prayerfully doing what Ohio state law allows to defy judicial tyranny and to protect every unborn child in the state of Ohio," Johnston says.

After months of campaigning through prayer rallies and television, radio and even aerial advertisements, proponents of Ohio’s extreme anti-choice Heartbeat Bill finally inched the process forward this week as the Senate president Tom Niehaus and Health committee chairman Sen. Scott Oelslager held committee hearings on the legislation. But now, the bill’s future is in doubt after Niehaus abruptly postponed hearings on the bill, first proposed by Janet Porter and State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, over intense infighting among anti-choice activists and last-minute changes to the bill:

Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, pulled the plug today on House Bill 125, the so-called heartbeat bill that would have been the nation’s strictest anti-abortion law. He suspended hearings on the controversial legislation until 2012.

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Oelslager had planned to only take testimony on HB 125 and not make amendments to it. That indicated the bill would not get passed this year as Porter said she was promised by Niehaus.

Niehaus said he doesn’t remember making that promise only that there would be hearings before Christmas. He again blasted Porter and bill supporters for suggesting changes Tuesday after saying the Senate should pass HB 125 just as it was passed by the House in June. He discounted Porter’s contention that the changes were technical in nature.

“After five months of berating us and criticizing us, with no explanation they hand me a four-page document with 20 plus changes,” he said. “Where were they? It underscores how complicated and contentious this legislation is.”

The Dayton Daily News reports that the National Right to Life Committee’s James Bopp testified against the extreme legislation, which is also opposed by the Ohio Right to Life Society:

The bill has divided abortion opponents, and James Bopp Jr., general counsel to the National Right to Life Committee, testified against it Tuesday. He said in his prepared testimony that he believes the ban on abortions after a heartbeat would be unconstitutional under current court rulings and would not stand a U.S. Supreme Court challenge.

He said that the “informed consent” requirement in the bill — that a woman be informed that a heartbeat was detected — would be useful legislation that would be constitutional.

Porter, however, rejected Bopp’s argument and said taking the ban out of the bill would “take the heart out of the Heartbeat” bill. Ohio Right to Life does not support the bill for reasons similar to those outlined by Bopp, but Porter and supporters say now is the time to mount a challenge.

Last week we reported that Janet Porter said she had the votes in the Ohio State Senate to pass her extreme anti-choice Heartbeat bill, which already passed in the House, and today the Senate President said he will send Porter’s legislation to Senate’s Health, Human Services and Aging Committee. Porter, who heads Faith 2 Action, helped spearhead a new group called Ohio ProLife Action to advocate for the bill after the Ohio Right to Life Society refused to support the clearly unconstitutional measure. Governor John Kasich, an anti-choice Republican, has yet to announce his view on the Heartbeat bill.

Aaron Marshall of The Plain Dealer reports:

Ohio Senate Republicans, under pressure from an anti-abortion group to act, will move a bill that bans abortions in Ohio once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, says Senate President Tom Niehaus.

The New Richmond Republican said this week that a four-month Senate impasse on the so-called "heartbeat" legislation has broken, and his caucus is prepared to move forward with committee hearings and eventual passage of the legislation. If the heartbeat bill becomes law and withstands any legal challenges, Ohio would have the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

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"I expect the bill will be moving to committee for deliberation," said Niehaus.

He said the intent would be to eventually move the bill to the floor for passage, although he couldn't say exactly what the timetable would be. The Senate is dominated by Republicans, who hold a 23-10 majority, and the GOP caucus is solidly anti-abortion rights.

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Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, said the Republican governor "has been consistently pro-life all of his public life" but doesn't generally take a position on bills that haven't reached his desk.