Ohio’s referendum, supposedly about abortion, would broadly obliterate parental rights

Once on the frontlines of defending freedom in communities across America, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has undergone a radical transformation in recent years. This has culminated in its latest efforts to gut parental rights using every tool at its disposal.

From challenging parental consent and notification laws in Alaska and Indiana and fighting curriculum transparency laws that give parents insight into what their children learn in the classroom, to encouraging teachers to conceal decisions from parents that children might make about their gender identity while at school, the ACLU is now on a clear anti-parent mission. And with a bevy of left-wing ideological allies supporting this anti-parent crusade, it has only become bolder in its tactics.

This week, the ACLU and its pro-abortion rights allies succeeded in landing a supposed abortion rights initiative on the Ohio ballot. This measure, if it were to pass, would strip parents like me of the fundamental freedom to guide our children through irreversible and life-altering medical decisions, including not only abortion but also cross-sex hormone therapy and sex change surgeries.

Together with groups like United for Reproductive Freedom, the ACLU has taken the red herring of abortion rights and turned it into a much broader attack on parental rights under the banner of “reproductive freedom.”

The proposed Ohio amendment, drafted by the ACLU, includes language forbidding any state law that “directly or indirectly” would “burden” or “interfere” with any “reproductive decisions.” Although this is being advertised as abortion-related, the amendment goes far beyond that. It does not mention “women,” nor does it include any age-related restrictions or a clear definition of “reproductive decisions.” This opens the door for children of all ages to make life-changing decisions, absent parental involvement, that permanently disfigure or destroy their reproductive systems or organs.

As The Washington Post recently described the amendment, its language “could be extrapolated to protect access to all sorts of medical interventions, including sex-change surgery or sterilization, and not just for adults. Age is never mentioned in the amendment, meaning that children could have unfettered access to surgical procedures, including abortion, without parental interference.”

I am increasingly alarmed by this brazen attack on parental rights. As a new mother and an Ohio resident, I fear the ACLU’s efforts to cloak its anti-parent agenda in a web of abortion rights messaging is deceiving families across my state.

We should never allow special interest groups to strip away our rights and enable minor children to make dangerous and life-changing medical decisions without parental input. When I moved from India to the U.S. at age five, I was blessed to live with 10 family members — my own parents included — who worked together to protect and raise me. I thrived because of my deeply connected family members and their involvement in my decisions, big and small. 

No special interest group can care for children the way parents do. Neither I nor other parents in Ohio need the ACLU or other well-funded groups to take away our right and privilege to care for our children.

Equally alarming to me as an attorney is that the ACLU knew exactly what it was doing when it helped draft this radical anti-parent amendment in Ohio. ACLU lawyers specifically added language for reproductive decisions “including but not limited to” — language that deliberately opens the door for transgender surgeries and late-term abortions without parental consent. These activist attorneys willfully ignore the right to parental consent that we have as parents under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.

As the Supreme Court recognized in the 2000 case Troxel v. Granville, “the interest of parents in the care, custody and control of their children — is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court. It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents.”

The ACLU’s attacks on parents and our right to decide what is best for our children should generate an opposition that transcends politics. In Ohio, where the ACLU is pursuing its latest anti-parent victory, every resident who believes that the family is the institution best equipped to nurture and protect children — to a far greater extent than government or schools — should stand up in November and fight to protect parents.

For these reasons and so many others, we simply cannot afford to let government and ideologically motivated groups replace the authority of current and future parents. If we falter in this fight, what comes next?

Mehek Cooke is a mother, attorney, 2020 State House candidate and business owner from Ohio. She has previously served as legal counsel for presidential campaigns, the Ohio Governor’s Office and the Ohio Department of Agriculture.