Planned Parenthood CEO: Talk about adoption, fostering is distraction; Ohio needs abortion

Fostering and adopting are not a replacement for abortion, as Ohio Sen. Kristina Roegner suggests in her July 31 guest column. This argument ignores the dangers of pregnancy, the trauma of carrying out an unintended pregnancy, and the very real challenges of parenthood. But most of all, this argument ignores that we as people have the right to decide what happens to our bodies and our lives.

Abortion is health care and should not be politicized. With Ohio's six-week ban in place, we have the heartbreaking job of encouraging patients to get into our health clinics as soon as possible for abortion care and, if they are too far along, help them find that care in another state. Having to communicate to patients the restrictions the state has placed on their bodies is devastating. Republicans have continued to ban, restrict and stigmatize abortion in Ohio.

It is harmful that Roegner suggested fostering as an alternative to abortion, especially because she knows how many children are in need. There are more than 400,000 children who are currently in the broken foster care system. And it’s important to note that this solution of hers is one that would pay her money monthly. Anti-abortion politicians use adoption and fostering as a talking point to continue the facade that they are pro-life, but we know they are only pro-birth.

When people want an abortion but are turned away and forced to carry the pregnancy to term, only 9% of them decide to place the baby for adoption. Anti-abortion politicians know this. This "look over here" argument is continually used as a distraction by extreme anti-abortion politicians like Roegner and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett during the arguments that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Pregnancy can also be dangerous. It is not right that we live in a state that values a fetus over human life. The United States has the highest maternal death rate of any developed nation, and it only continues to rise. Due to systemic racism in health care, Black people are at especially high risk and are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth than white people. The anti-abortion movement has ignored this public health crisis for decades.

Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse and across the country have been focused on restricting and banning abortion rather than doing their jobs and keeping their constituents safe by passing policies that address this deadly disparity. Ohio Republican lawmakers, including Roegner, have ignored policies like H.C.R. 6 that would declare racism a public health crisis and would establish resources to address the Black maternal health crisis.

Take the horrible example of the 10-year-old Ohio child who had to go to Indiana for an abortion after everything she had been through. Roegner claimed that this child could have had an abortion in Ohio because of an exception in the law. However, the "exemption" is written so strictly and with such a heavy penalty for the doctor that it purposefully makes it nearly impossible to prove an exemption is needed. Many national databases don't even count Ohio's law to have an exemption. Republicans pretend to put in exemptions to bills because they know that most Ohioans believe in the right to an abortion. The exemption talking point is an illusion for anti-abortion politicians to continue the facade that they are anti-abortion because they care about life.

Roegner is currently sponsoring the total abortion ban in the Senate, Senate Bill 123, a bill that would ban abortion no matter how far along you are. While she and many of her anti-abortion colleagues are strategic in how they pull the wool over Ohioans' eyes, Roegner's House counterpart says their strategy aloud. During a hearing for the House version of Roegner's bill, House Bill 598, Roegner's colleague said the quiet part aloud when she said that rape was an opportunity, "there's an opportunity for that woman, no matter how young or old she is, to make a determination about what's she's going to do to help that life be a productive human being."

These right-wing lawmakers have been responsible for stripping Ohioans of their right to bodily autonomy for years. Since the gerrymandering process of 2010, they have focused on pushing over 30 abortion bans and restrictions through the Statehouse while sitting back and watching Ohioans' health suffer and health disparities rise. We will not stand by as they gaslight us and pretend they are pro-life or pro anything other than their political agenda.

While voting alone will not save, it is critical now to look past politicians' words and look at their actions when we go to the ballot box. Roegner's name is on the ballot in November. We will remember the harm she and her Republican colleagues have caused Ohio.

Iris E. Harvey is president, and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Planned Parenthood CEO response to Senator Kristina Roegner