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Wednesday, July 20, 2011
UPDATED with Kasich comment - Gov. Kasich signs post-viability abortion ban
Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday signed House Bill 78, legislation banning post-viability abortions.
“Life is a gift from God and one way that we express our ongoing gratitude for it is by respecting it,” Kasich said in a press release.
“This bill does that in a very fundamental way and I’m proud to have signed it into law.”
Mike Gonidakis, executive director of the Ohio Right to Life Society, used a press release to praise Kasich:
“In order to protect life, it takes compassionate leadership from our elected officials
“By signing this critical pro-life legislation, Governor Kasich demonstrated to all Ohioans that the health and welfare of mothers and their unborn children are of paramount importance to the state of Ohio.”
Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, lashed out at Kasich.
“Its going to endanger women’s health because it does not have an adequate health exception. Now we know where Kasich stands on women’s health. He’s against it,” said Copeland.
The bill requires women seeking abortions to be tested for viability at 20 weeks. Although viability usually occurs about 23 weeks, sometimes the measure of a pregnancy can be a few weeks off, said Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, a key backer of the bill.
If the test shows viability, an abortion would be prohibited unless necessary to save the life of the mother or there is a serious risk to her physical health. There is no mental health exception.
Lehner said the law would save about 200 babies a year.
The legislation is separate from the “Heartbeat” bill, House Bill 125, which would prohibit an abortion once a heartbeat is detected which could be as early as six weeks. The House passed this bill, but the Senate has not taken it up.
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TweetPoll: Voters cool to Kasich, support SB 5 repeal and photo ID requirement
Ohio voters continue to disapprove of Republican Gov. John Kasich’s performance and right now they appear ready to repeal Senate Bill 5, Kasich-backed legislation to limit public employee collective bargaining.
Those are two key findings of a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
In the poll, 50 percent disapproved of Kasich’s performance, while 35 percent approved. That’s a little worse for Kasich than a May 18 poll which found 49 percent disapproval and 38 percent approval.
Voters said they’d back repeal of SB 5, 56-32 percent, slightly stronger backing for repeal that May 18 results which found 54 percent for repeal and 36 percent against. A referendum on SB 5 appears likely to make the Nov. 8 ballot.
Also in the poll, voters overwhelmingly backed, 78-20 percent, efforts to require photo identification to vote, a measure that has passed the Ohio House, but not the Senate.
The poll also found that by a narrow margin, 48-45 percent, voters support a proposed constitutional amendments to block any federal efforts to require Ohioans to buy health insurance. The proposed amendment also appears likely to be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Kasich’s approval rating continued to fall even though since the last poll the legislature passed and he signed a two-year state budget that closed a potential multi-billion dollar shortfall without raising taxes.
The poll found support for how Kasich and the GOP-controlled legislature handled the budget.
Sixty-three percent said it was a good thing that taxes were not raised and the budget deficit was closed by just spending cuts. Just 28 percent said taxes should have been raised.
The economy has remained sluggish and unemployment relatively high through Kasich’s first seven months as governor and that could be a reason for the low approval rating, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnpiac University Polling Institute.
“Governors get credit or blame just as presidents get credit or blame for big things like the economy, whether or not they have the ability to change them,” said Brown.
Kasich doesn’t face re-election until 2014 which gives him time to “drive home that he did what he said he was going to do to balance the budget and wasn’t going to raise taxes,” said Brown.
The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,659 registered voters conducted from July 12 to Monday, July 18 by live interviewers over land lines and cell phones. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
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