Pro-abortion group is suing the state of Ohio because the ballot initiative they backed used the term “unborn child.”

Newscast from Washington, DC at 10:15 a.m. on September 1, 2023

This week, the proponents of an attempt to amend the Ohio Constitution to legalize abortion filed a lawsuit against state officials after a board approved ballot text that includes the term “unborn child” rather than the proponents’ preferred term, “fetus.”

Although the pro-abortion ballot proposal, named Issue 1, is guaranteed to appear on the Nov. 7 ballots, the Ohio Supreme Court will need to decide what text voters will see when they enter the ballot box to cast their vote.

The Ohio Ballot Board approved Issue 1 ballot language, which states that the proposed amendment would prevent the government from restricting abortion “before an unborn child is determined to be viable” but would “always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.”

In their complaint, the pro-abortion group Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said that the term “unborn child” implied a “ethical judgment” about “what stage of development a zygote, embryo, or fetus becomes a ‘child.'” Instead of using the text decided upon by the board, the group asked the Ohio Supreme Court to mandate that the state present voters with the exact language of the proposed amendment.