MUST READ: Frank LaRose Exposed for Putting Thumb On The Scale to Ban Abortion
November 29, 2023
LaRose Admits To Working With Special Interest Groups to Rewrite State Issue 1 Ballot Language and Intentionally Mislead Voters
Columbus, OH – A new must read report from Cleveland.com exposes how Frank LaRose put his thumb on the scale to ban abortion by rewriting the ballot language for State Issue 1 to be intentionally misleading. LaRose has already said he would overrule the majority of Ohioans who voted to protect reproductive rights this month by voting for a national abortion ban.
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Cleveland.com: Secretary of State Frank LaRose says abortion opponents helped craft ballot language to aid defeat of Issue 1
Andrew Tobias
November 29, 2023
- Secretary of State Frank LaRose offered an unusually blunt assessment while defending the ballot language he helped write for state Issue 1, the abortion-rights ballot measure that voters approved earlier this month, to a conservative critic at a local Republican Party event.
- In doing so, LaRose confirmed something that abortion-rights supporters have suspected all along: Abortion opponents helped him craft the ballot language in a way meant to benefit their campaign to defeat the measure.
- LaRose also chairs the Ohio Ballot Board, a state panel tasked with writing the language voters see on their ballots when they decide whether to support or oppose a ballot measure.
- In response to a question about specifics in the amendment language, LaRose said his office consulted with three prominent anti-abortion groups that led the anti-Issue 1 campaign – Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America, the Center for Christian Virtue and Ohio Right to Life – as it crafted the ballot language. All three groups played central roles in leading and funding Protect Women Ohio, the main anti-Issue 1 campaign group.
- But the summary must be accurate, can’t omit key information and can’t amount to a persuasive argument for or against the measure, according to state law and numerous state court rulings.
- After Ohioans approved the measure 57%-43% earlier this month, the Issue 1 campaign described overcoming efforts by LaRose and other Ohio Republicans who used their elected positions to try to defeat the measure. One of those facets included the ballot language LaRose and other Republicans approved in August, prompting a lawsuit shortly afterward from the pro-Issue 1 campaign.
- LaRose has faced other criticism from across the political spectrum for his role in the chain of events leading to Issue 1′s passage this month. He also was a lead proponent of setting an August vote on a different ballot issue that would have blocked Issue 1 from passing by requiring it to get 60% of the vote in order to pass. Voters rejected that measure by a similar margin to the “yes” vote on Issue 1 in November.
- Bernie Moreno, one of LaRose’s Republican opponents, meanwhile has accused LaRose of messing up the Issue 1 campaign by making a public comment explicitly tying the measure to abortion, providing a sound bite that eventually made its way into a campaign commercial from the campaign that defeated the 60% measure in August.
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