Click Issues Statement on U.S. District Judge Michael Barret's Decision on Blocking the Ohio Heartbeat Bill
State Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) has issued the following statement regarding U.S. District Judge Michael Barret’s decision to block the Ohio Heartbeat Bill:
“U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barret missed the boat with his decision to continue blocking the Ohio Heartbeat Bill. It is befuddling to see how educated and intelligent people can consistently miss the headline and dwell on the footnote.
“Barret states, “A woman with irregular periods likely will be denied the opportunity to seek an abortion altogether because she will not realize that she is pregnant in time to choose her fate.”
“While it is important not to minimize the dilemma of a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy, this concern covers up the most fundamental issue of life: life itself. He says nothing about the child’s fate. The very first right enumerated by our founding fathers was the right to life, followed by liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every core, fundamental, and God given right rests upon the right to life. As the right to life erodes, every other freedom falters on that weakened foundation.
“A more plain rendering of Barret’s observation would be that an abortionist is “unable to take a life because the mother does not yet know that a life exists.”
“The essential question is NOT whether a mother knows that she is carrying a life but whether or not it is a life that she is carrying. Every other concern is secondary to an individual’s right to life. The constitution does not place an asterisk on the right to life, suggesting that others must be aware and consent to that life. The Declaration did not declare any conditions on the quality or viability of life. In fact, just the opposite. Jefferson and fifty-five others declared the right to life as inalienable! The fifth and fourteenth Amendments guarantee that an individual’s life cannot be forfeited without due process. Yet any abortion that is not to preserve the life of a mother is an alienation of that fundamental right and requires no merit or process other than the choices of others.
“Judge Barret is straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. He and many others have gone way off into the weeds on this issue and forgotten the most fundamental principle of law: LIFE. America is in desperate need of jurisprudence that will stop attempting to reinvent the Constitution and simply interpret it as it is. While I empathize with mothers facing difficult life choices, we cannot cheapen life as simply a choice. I look forward to following this case to the Supreme Court in the hopes and prayers that they will return us to a state of sanity that values life, defends the defenseless, and adheres to the Constitution.”