CV NEWS FEED // Reports show that the pro-abortion side in Ohio’s fast-approaching Issue 1 referendum is vastly out-spending the pro-life movement.
The Associated Press (AP) reported Thursday that since September 8, the pro-abortion “yes” side in the referendum has raised almost three times more money than the pro-life “no” side: $29 million compared to less than $10 million.
AP indicated that “the largest donations” supporting the pro-abortion “yes” campaign came from outside of Ohio. This included “three gifts totaling $5.3 million from the progressive Sixteen Thirty Fund, based in Washington, D.C.”
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is largely bankrolled by Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire.
According to the AP, the organization behind the “yes” campaign
received $3.5 million from the New York-based Open Society Policy Center, a lobbying group associated with the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, and $2 million from the American Civil Liberties Union, also based in New York. Billionaires Michael Bloomberg of New York and Abigail Wexner, the Ohio-based wife of retired Limited Brands founder Les Wexner, each gave $1 million.
Meanwhile, among the biggest donors on the pro-life side are the Knights of Columbus and the Diocese of Columbus.
Ohioans are set to go to the polls November 7 to decide the future of abortion in the state.
As CatholicVote previously reported: “If the ‘yes’ side of the ballot initiative gains a simple majority of the vote, a so-called ‘right to abortion’ will be added to the Ohio state constitution.”
Again from CatholicVote’s previous reporting:
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, widely considered a moderate, has publicly warned that Issue 1 “goes way, way too far.”
Proponents of Issue 1 have resorted to deliberately confusing and deceptive messaging to make the ballot measure palatable, DeWine has argued over the weekend, but it “would put Ohio in a small category of the most permissive states in the union in regard to abortion.”
“I just don’t think it fits Ohio,” DeWine said. “It’s not who we are. It’s not where we are.”
