Janet Porter Hopes to Apply the Strategy Behind Texas’ ‘Heartbeat Bill’ to LGBTQ Issues in Public Schools

With the Supreme Court seemingly poised to overturn Roe v. Wade and anti-choice activists plotting to implement a nationwide “heartbeat bill” that will ban abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy, the “mastermind” of the heartbeat bill strategy is running for Congress and plotting to use the strategy behind the Texas’ 2021 draconian “heartbeat bill” to target schools that teach about LGBTQ issues.

Janet Porter, a longtime right-wing conspiracy theorist and religious-right activist, appeared on fellow radical right-wing activist Dave Daubenmire’s “Pass The Salt” program last month. Porter told Daubenmire that she hopes to take a lesson from the law passed in Texas that allows anyone to sue a clinic, doctor, or any person who facilitates an abortion for up to $10,000 and apply the same strategy to LGBTQ issues in public schools. The Texas law has had a chilling effect on reproductive centers in the state, and many have stopped providing abortions all together.

“Here’s what we learned in the state of Texas,” Porter said. “The motivation of abortion is money, and if we can take away that motivation; in other words, give citizens the right to sue any abortionist, anybody who aids or abets in the abortion—that’s the clinic escort, it’s the receptionist, it’s the insurance company—any citizen can sue for a violation of the Texas heartbeat law, and they’ll get $10,000 if they win their suit.”

“If we take the money away, the indoctrination stops,” Porter continued. “I’m on the board of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and I’ve drafted a bill—we’re going to present this in June to the legislators in all the 50 states—and the bill says we’re going to remove the protections. Right now, teachers, librarians, school board members; they’re all exempt from violating the state obscenity laws. Guess what? We’re gonna remove that exemption, and we’re gonna say parents have the right to sue when Johnny comes home with something that violates the state obscenity law. That’s grooming, and we’re going to sue. And guess what? We’re going to sue the teachers; we’re going to sue the school board members. And you want to know what? I think they’re going to think twice about pushing this garbage on our children.”

Porter faces off against six other candidates in today’s Republican primary to represent Ohio’s 13th Congressional District.