COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) –  With less than one month until Election Day in Ohio, Catholic church leaders at Holy Family in Franklinton are calling on their congregants to protect unborn life at the ballot box.

Above an image of a diaper-clad baby waving an American flag, the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church’s Sunday bulletin from June 25 urges its parishioners in black and bold lettering to “Vote AugYESt and NOvember” – two impending statewide elections that could dictate the fate of abortion access in Ohio.

“DECLINE TO SIGN,” the bulletin read in reference to an abortion-rights initiative eyed for the November ballot. “This doesn’t belong in our Constitution.”

Meanwhile, a few miles away – on the opposite end of Broad Street – Jewish congregants at Temple Israel flocked to the streets with clipboards in hand to collect voters’ signatures in support of the proposed abortion-rights amendment.

“Reproductive freedom is a Jewish value,” the synagogue’s website reads.

As Ohio voters request absentee ballots and present a photo ID at early voting centers, religious groups across the state are joining the campaign trail – some more vocally than others  – in hopes of swaying public opinion on the abortion debate.

“There’s a long history, even stemming back to 19th-century debates about slavery, of the ways religious communities have taken stances on moral and political concern, in part because religious voices are seen to have strong moral source within the public sphere,” said Isaac Weiner, an associate professor and director of the Center for Religion Studies at Ohio State University.

A religious divide

On Aug. 8, Ohio voters will decide whether it should be harder to amend the state’s constitution. If passed, Issue 1 would require 60% of voter support, as opposed to the existing simple majority of 50% plus one, to enact a change to Ohio’s Constitution.

The state’s Republican-led legislature fast-tracked the measure and its corresponding August election, largely to stave off an abortion-rights initiative that’s poised for the November ballot. 

“The correlation between the Aug. 8 vote and the November election are absolutely correlated because (Secretary of State) Frank LaRose said it himself: ‘This August vote is 100% about abortion,’” said. Rev. Dr. Timothy Ahrens of the First Congregational Church in Downtown Columbus.

Ahrens’ church is a member of the United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination that has long supported reproductive rights and “women’s God-given right to bodily autonomy,” he said. His church on Broad Street – flanked by rainbow pride flags – generally leans left on social issues.

“This is a big issue for women and men in my congregation, and for the teenagers who are asking the question, ‘Do I want to be in Ohio?’ I mean, this is the kind of stuff that drives people away,” Ahrens said.

The Catholic Conference of Ohio – which represents the bishops leading Ohio’s six Catholic dioceses – is staunchly opposed to abortion and thus the initiative planned for November, according to its executive director Brian Hickey.

In collaboration with the anti-abortion campaign Protect Women Ohio, Hickey said the conference sent out about 1 million pamphlets to its member churches, informing congregants about the proposed November ballot measure and its “culture of death.”

“All life, from conception and natural death, deserves protection and respect, whether it’s a baby in the womb or a prisoner on death row or an immigrant or refugee,” Hickey said. “The Catholic Church believes we should be speaking out for these marginalized populations.”

Unlike candidate elections, federal law allows religious organizations to support or oppose ballot initiatives. But Hickey said the conference is neutral on Issue 1 because it does not involve “moral content,” a prerequisite for Ohio’s bishops to take a stance.

“We get involved in many issues – from poverty issues to human dignity and life – but we stick to issues that have moral content,” Hickey said. “Issue 1 could have an effect on the November election, so we are informing parishioners about the August special election.”

The conference used similar language as Protect Women Ohio — the campaign against the abortion-rights initiative — by telling its member churches and their parishioners that the abortion-rights amendment could hurt parental consent laws, “justify a woman’s anxiety or depression” for late-term abortions or eliminate safety standards associated with the procedure.

Those claims have been dismissed as “outright lies” by the authors of the initiative, including Dr. Laura Beene, a pediatrician and executive director of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights.

Currently, abortion in Ohio is legal up to 22 weeks pregnancy. The amendment would allow abortions up to the point of fetal viability, which typically occurs between 20 and 25 weeks of pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Abortions that occur later in a pregnancy account for less than 1% of all abortion care, ACOG said.

Beene said the amendment won’t impact parental consent laws, either. The proposed amendment does not distinguish between minors and adults — just like the Second Amendment and other constitutional rights — because existing statutes already do so.

Joining the Catholic bishops in its opposition to the abortion-rights amendment is the State Convention of Baptists Ohio, a group of churches affiliated with the conservative Southern Baptist Convention.

In its June 2023 newsletter, the convention said it partnered with the Center for Christian Virtue, a conservative religious advocacy group based in Columbus, to oppose not only the reproductive-rights initiative but also a marijuana legalization effort that’s similarly eyed for the November ballot.

“Ohio Baptists must be working hard with the local churches in our communities to derail these initiatives that seek to destroy our children and youth,” the newsletter read.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio), though its position on abortion is unclear, urged its members to vote against Issue 1 to “protect the rights of Muslims to update Ohio’s Constitution,” its website reads.

Similarly, the Cleveland chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, a progressive faith-based advocacy group, is mobilizing its members for the state’s upcoming elections, according to Tracy Grinstead-Everly, co-chair of the chapter’s Reproductive Rights and Health Committee.

Fifty of its members collected 2,700 signatures to place the abortion-rights initiative on the November ballot, and the chapter is opposing Issue 1. One of its goals is to change the misconception that those who are religious are anti-abortion, which “couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Grinstead-Everly said.

“We’re inspired by the phrase, ‘Justice, Justice, you Shall Pursue,’ and we understand that reproductive freedoms are intricately tied to religious freedom, and we’re committed to advancing the goal of self-determination,” Grinstead-Everly said. “Having the ability to control your own body is the most fundamental human right, and the authentic access to services to necessary to exercise that right. Anything less is unjust and undemocratic, and that’s why voting yes in November is so critical.”

Last July, the chapter signed onto a letter to the Ohio Supreme Court, in support of a lawsuit challenging the state’s six-week abortion ban, or Senate Bill 23. Requiring all Ohioans — regardless of their faith — to adhere to one perspective about when life begins violates their freedom of religion, the letter read.

“No one religion has the right to monopolize the claim that they have faith on their side,” Grinstead-Everly said.

Pulpit vs. pew

What is spoken from the altar may not always reflect the nuance in individual members’ beliefs, according to Gregory Smith, associate director of religion research at the non-partisan Pew Research Center.

About 84% of religiously unaffiliated people believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but “they’re not alone in that view,” Smith said, citing a 2022 study from the center. For instance, about 56% of Catholic adults and 66% of Black Protestants in the U.S. believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Americans become even further divided, Smith said, when asked about circumstances like the stage of a pregnancy, whether a mother’s life is in danger, or whether the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

The United Methodist Church adopts a similarly loose stance on abortion, “reluctant to approve” the procedure and opposes it in some circumstances given its belief in the sanctity of unborn life, according to its list of social principles. But the church said it also recognizes “tragic conflicts of life” that may justify abortion and its equal obligation to respecting the “the “sacredness” of the life and well-being of the mother.

“It’s a spectrum; it’s not always black and white,” Smith said. “There are some people who take an absolutist view, who say it should be against the law in all cases or that it should be legal in all cases – but most people don’t. Most people are somewhere between those two poles.”

Rabbi Sharon Mars of Temple Israel, though steadfast in her support of reproductive freedom and the concept of “one person one vote,” said all faith leaders should welcome conversations with congregants who may disagree with what’s spoken from the pulpit.

“I personally make it my policy to sit down and have coffee with anybody who disagrees with me and wants to talk about issues – even if it means that they leave the congregation – because we need to be able to have honest, open, loving conversations together, even about the most churning issues of our day,” Mars said.