COLUMBUS—Protect Women Ohio (PWO), a pro-woman, pro-parent coalition, launched two new 60-second ads this week aimed at defeating Ohio’s dangerous anti-parent amendment. The ads, entitled “Libby” and “Linda,” will go into rotation as part of last month’s $5 million statewide television and digital ad buy. The ads feature Ohio moms Libby McCartney and Linda Corbitt explaining how the ACLU-backed amendment will eliminate parental notification and consent requirements for minors obtaining abortions or sex change surgeries. This extreme anti-parent amendment is the latest example of the ACLU’s war on parental rights, effectively cutting parents out of the most important and life-altering decisions of their child’s life.

McCartney and Corbitt explain the amendment language clearly forbids any law that “directly or indirectly” would “burden” or “interfere” with an individual’s “reproductive decisions.” Those are specific legal terms which have been interpreted by courts across the country to strike down parental notification and consent laws.

“Parents have every reason to fear the ACLU’s extreme agenda,” said Molly Smith, PWO board member. “As a mom of five, I stand with Libby, Linda, and all Ohio parents in opposing this amendment that threatens our rights. The state government doesn’t know what is best for our kids, we do.”

Click the image below to watch “Libby.”

Ad Text (Libby McCartney)

Today in Ohio, if your minor child wants to have an abortion or get a sex change, you as a parent have rights.

This amendment would take away those rights. It doesn't differentiate between a minor and an adult. And because there is language in there about reproductive decisions that do not limit it to just abortion, this is opening the door for any other reproductive therapies, sex changes, anything to do with the reproductive organs.

Then there’s this phrase that the state shall not interfere. As a parent, I could be cut out of these decisions that my child is making and someone who is coercing them or is talking them into something could take my teenage daughter, she could get an abortion or get a procedure done and I don't even know about it. That’s what’s scary.

If you as a parent want to be involved in these big decisions in your child’s life, read the amendment.

You’ll come to the same conclusion that this is about parental rights. It’s not just about abortion like they say it is.

Click the image below to watch “Linda.”

Ad Text (Linda Corbitt)

They’re going after my kids, and I get really passionate about it because I can’t support something where I lose my parental rights.

The language in this amendment takes away our rights as parents to be involved with the decisions that our children make.

If they wanted it to be about just abortions, they would have made it just about abortions. They added in these really loose language terms such as reproductive decisions.

So, it could be my 11-year-old daughter going out making decisions without my involvement. She can say I’m going to go get a sex change and I can’t say or do anything about it because we have this amendment now that eliminates my right as a parent.

They could have made a distinction between adults and minors, but they didn’t.

So what do they mean when they say the state shall not burden or the state shall not interfere with it. It means that I lose that right to protect my child.

This amendment is so much more than pro-life versus pro-choice. It’s going directly after our children. I cannot support this amendment.

A legal analysis of the extreme anti-parent amendment is available here from constitutional scholars Carrie Campbell Severino, President of Judicial Crisis Network, and Frank J. Scaturro, a former special counsel to the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.

Background on the ACLU’s war on parental rights is available here. The ACLU has a long and well-documented history of fighting against parental rights, including in Alaska and Indiana. The ACLU specifically calls out parental involvement on its website, saying it would restrict “teenagers’ access to abortion.”

The first ad in PWO’s $5 million statewide ad buy can be viewed here.

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 Protect Women Ohio is a coalition of concerned family and life leaders, parents, health and medical experts, and faith leaders in Ohio. Molly Smith, Founding Member of Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio; Aaron Baer, President of Center for Christian Virtue; and Peter Range, CEO of Ohio Right to Life, serve as members of the PWO Board of Directors.

To learn more, please visit www.protectwomenohio.com