Sanctity of Life

I affirm the God-given legal personhood of all human beings from fertilization to natural death, without exception. The first duty of the law is to protect innocent life, created in the image of God. No level of civil government may legalize or fund the taking of life without justification. In Ohio, 57 babies per day are murdered in the wombs of their mothers. This must stop immediately. I do not support laws that regulate abortion, only laws that abolish it. Any form of legalizing the termination of innocent life of the born or preborn, whether by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia or suicide, is a direct violation of their unalienable right to life. It is unconstitutional to regulate such practices and they must be abolished immediately without exception or compromise. I am an abortion abolitionist.

As to matters of rape and incest, I empathize with those abused and assert the need to provide victims immediate protection and care in a safe environment. It is unconscionable and unconstitutional to take the life of an innocent child for the crimes of their father.

I oppose the use of tax-payer funds at any level of government to support any local, state, federal, or foreign government entity, or any other private organization or quasi-government entity, foreign or domestic, which advocates, encourages or participates in the practice of abortion.

Further, I condemn the misuse of federal laws against anti-abortion advocates, and strongly urge the repeal of statutes like the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act as an unconstitutional expansion of federal power into areas reserved to the states or people by the Tenth Amendment.

Inherent to the sanctity of life is the individual and community right to self-defense against violence. I support capital punishment in cases of rape, kidnapping, and murder. This God-given authority for the civil government to "bear the sword against the evildoer" (Romans 13) is a necessary command to protect innocent life in our state.