For nearly two years now, Janet Porter has been focused entirely on seeing passage in Ohio of a radical piece of anti-choice legislation known as the “Heartbeat Bill” and been organizing a variety of stunts and promotions designed to pressure Ohio legislators to pass it, including flooding their offices with heart-shaped balloons and teddy bears and even scheduling a fetus to “testify” on behalf of the bill. But last month Senate President Thomas Niehaus finally got fed up with Porter’s antics and announced that the Heartbeat Bill was dead.
But Porter had only grown more determined, refusing to give up and instead upping the pressure with more rallies while targeting specific state legislators with postcards and newspaper ads [PDF].
Today, Porter organized yet another press conference where she stood next to a giant inflatable rhinoceros and declared that, if the Ohio Senate failed to pass her legislation before leaving for summer recess, it would be “open season on RINOS,” by which she means “Republicans In Name Only, ” which is what she is calling Senate Republicans who are refusing to allow a vote on the bill.
Porter has literally done nothing but pressure these legislators to pass this bill for years without success, yet now she is boldly declaring that everything she has done so far “is nothing compared to what we’re going to do” if the legislation does not get a vote before recess, as she will be left with no choice but to run ads comparing these Republicans not to RINOS but – the horror! – to Democrats:
