Dear Parish Family,

I want to encourage you to register to vote for the August 8 Special Election where Ohio citizens can vote on Issue 1 to "Require that any proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Ohio receive the approval of at least 60 percent of eligible voters voting on the proposed amendment." In addition, Issue 1 would require that petitions to amend the Ohio Constitution "be signed by at least five percent of the electors of each county." 

While the bishops of Ohio have reminded us that Issue 1 in August's Special Election does not have any direct moral content in and of itself, as responsible citizens we do need to weigh the corollary impacts that Issue 1 will have in the future. The fact is that a YES vote to Issue 1 in August will make it more difficult in the November election to pass the dangerous and immoral amendment to the Ohio Constitution enshrining unrestricted access to abortion, up to and including the moments before the child is born. The wording of the November proposed amendment is vague and open-ended, without clear protections for the health and well-being of children, mothers, or parents. Legal precedence has already been set in courts across the country with amendments with language such as this to abolish parental notification and consent requirements which are in place to protect minors, and to eliminate basic health and safety requirements in place to protect women. It is clear that this proposed amendment is not about helping or supporting women, children, or families in crisis, but only about increasing access to abortion, which is intrinsically evil.

The bottom line is that the unborn, women, children, and parents will be harmed gravely if this November amendment passes. This is an issue of human rights and dignity. It is neither a partisan nor a religious issue. We have the moral duty as members of our human family, citizens of our country, and defenders of human life from conception to natural death, to vote NO to the proposed amendment in November. 

What will help make the November proposed amendment harder to pass is a YES vote to the August 8 Issue 1 Special Election. Moreover, a YES vote in August for Issue 1 will also ensure that future petitions for amendment consideration are supported over all 88 Ohio counties with at least a 5% signature backing, and ensure proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution are supported by a larger majority of voters (60%).

To sum it up, my faithful and pastoral encouragement is for you to register to vote for the upcoming elections, consider your stance on August 8's Special Election for Issue 1, and vote NO in November's election to defeat the proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution enshrining abortion access into law. 

As we did last weekend, we are continuing to give away "Why We're Pro-Life" books this weekend by Trent Horn. If you missed picking up a copy last weekend, please do yourself and your family a favor by picking up a few copies, reading, and sharing with people in your circle, especially those who might not be totally convinced of the Church's firm and consistent pro-life stance. It's a short 35-page booklet that will take under an hour to read, and is packed with intelligent, sensible, and pastoral wisdom clarifying the Church's pro-life teaching and debunking common fallacies. If we run out, we will get more. The most important part of this is educating yourself to be able to speak from a place of truth and love about abortion, and to share the fruits of this teaching with others. Christ needs you to be His voice in your relationship circles as we prepare hearts this election season to defend life from conception through natural death. 

I pray that we may all remember the powerful words of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si which integrates our care for creation with our care for unborn persons: "Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?" (120). As Pope Francis suggests, we need to remember that whatever reasons may be given as justifications for abortion, no one has a 'right' and there is never a good reason to intentionally kill an unborn human person. 

I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow