Eyes wide open

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, November 9th, 2023.

Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up on The World and Everything in It: Abortion in Ohio.

On Tuesday, Ohioans passed Issue 1 by a vote of 57 to 43 percent. The ballot measure adds a right to abortion to the state constitution. Pro-lifers are concerned it will also dismantle existing laws restricting abortion in the state.

BROWN: WORLD’s Leah Savas talked to Ohio voters on election day and has a report on how they responded to pro-life messaging.

SOUND: [Leah walking on sidewalk and into the exhibit]

LEAH SAVAS, REPORTER: It’s Tuesday afternoon. A young couple is walking up a trendy street in downtown Columbus, Ohio. They stop outside of a storefront by an A-frame sign on the sidewalk that says, “EVIDENCE, crime scene photos from the trial of America’s biggest serial killer.” Intrigued, the couple steps inside.

SOUND: [Couple entering]

MAYA: Hi! We’re just wondering what this is.

Inside is a big empty room with fancy tile flooring. A few dozen photos of a Philadelphia abortion facility line the white walls in silver frames—photos of unsanitary metal surgical tools, and jars investigators found filled with the feet of aborted babies. At the back of the exhibit, black curtains conceal photos of dead babies at advanced gestational ages.

They’re all photos from the 2013 trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the abortionist who ran a filthy facility in downtown Philadelphia. He’s serving three life sentences for crimes including murdering babies born alive and performing illegal late-term abortions.

ANNALISA PESEK: We brought it here because of Issue 1. And which has been voted on today.

That’s Annalisa Pesek. She’s a part of the team staffing the exhibit and is the one welcoming the visitors. A flier informs visitors about the amendment on Ohio ballots that would add a right to abortion to the state constitution. It says if Issue 1 passes, it could protect abortionists like Gosnell from legal scrutiny. And that babies exactly like the ones shown in the exhibit will be routinely aborted in Ohio under Issue 1. Here’s Phelim McAleer, one of the exhibit designers.

PHELIM McALEER: A lot of what Gosnell was convicted for could be legal under Ohio's Issue 1, you know. And would Gosnell be serving a life sentence if he was in Ohio today?

Less than two hours after polls closed, early results indicated the amendment had passed. But some Ohio voters north of Columbus in the city of Delaware shared these concerns about enshrining abortion rights in interviews outside of polling locations on Tuesday.

SAVAS: How did you vote on Issue 1? That's the abortion amendment.

VOTER: I voted no.

SAVAS: And why?

VOTER: Because I don't like the idea of being able to do an abortion at any time during the pregnancy.

VOTER: I'm not totally against abortion in certain cases. But I thought this, this went way too far. I think a woman has a right to decide, but not to that point.

50-year-old Daniel Miller was concerned the amendment would allow partial-birth abortion.

DANIEL MILLER: That’s something I'm fairly staunchly against. Just because of the so much coverage on things like the nightmare of the Gosnell institution that came out a few years ago. We don't need that.

I met pro-lifer Joyce Thiel on the sidewalk outside of a Planned Parenthood in Columbus. She took issue with the way the amendment prioritized the so-called right to abortion.

JOYCE THIEL: The direct, intentional killing of an unborn human person who is completely innocent, completely defenseless, irreplaceable and unrepeatable is what abortion is. They're elevating to that right completely ignoring the rights of the human child, also, whose body is actually going to be dismembered.

But most of the Ohioans I talked to on Tuesday weren’t concerned about that child’s right to life. I met these voters at a polling location three minutes away from the abortion facility.

SAVAS: And how did you vote on issue one today?

VOTER: I voted yes.

SAVAS: And why?

VOTER: Um, because I feel like nobody has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body.

VOTER: Women should be in charge of their bodies.

VOTER: Because I think it should be a woman's right to choose.

VOTER: I think it's important to give reproductive rights to women.

Back at the Gosnell exhibition, Annalisa Pesek says some visitors have walked in with this mindset.

ANNALISA PESEK: People come in who have very strong opinions about issue one and are not going to listen. And they have left immediately once they heard the word abortion.

She says others stayed and looked. The photos of the dead babies brought some to tears.

The young couple who walked in on the afternoon of election day went through the entire exhibit. Maya and Godwin seemed open to the message.

MAYA: This was a lot actually. Yeah, very, very sad to to watch.

GODWIN: I feel like this should really be an eye opener for people. Well, what could go wrong? What could happen?

They said the photos of the dead babies were hard to look at. But they still defended abortion.

GODWIN: it looks like he just didn't do it the right way. It just It looks like he just maybe killed some of them.

MAYA: I think that a lot of women have different circumstances. And it's all just not black and white. And I think that they should have the decision to do whatever makes them feel most comfortable to move on and to become stronger again.

They hadn’t voted on Issue 1 yet, but already knew how they would vote.

MAYA: My mind hasn't changed seeing this, I still think that women deserve the right to choose however they see fit. This was just very eye-opening.

Pesek recognizes that one look at photos like these may not change long-held views on abortion, but she says it may just be the first step towards a new perspective.

PESEK: You can’t really walk through this exhibit without having second thoughts about what you maybe thought if you were on the pro-abortion side.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leah Savas in Columbus and Delaware, Ohio.

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