The Friends of the Women’s Care Center hosted a night of drinks, desserts and discussion on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision at The Fives in Columbus on April 26.
A guest panel answered questions about the June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal in all 50 states. The panel addressed the impact the decision has on the Women’s Care Center, which assists women facing unexpected pregnancies and with parenting their children after birth, at its two Columbus locations, and how to navigate discussions about it.
The panel also answered questions regarding a ballot initiative proposed in Ohio that is seeking to secure a statewide right to abortion.
State lawmakers, individuals and pastors at Catholic parishes across the Diocese of Columbus attended the event.
The panel included Don Brey, a constitutional lawyer, graduate of Yale Law School and parishioner at Columbus St. Patrick Church. Brey was named to The Best Lawyers in America publication and is an active member of the Knights of Malta Catholic lay religious order.
Also on the panel were Drs. Ashley Fernandes and Michael Parker. Fernandes is the associate director of bioethics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a member of the Ohio Right to Life board of trustees.
Parker is a past national president of the Catholic Medical Association, a medical consultant and board member for the Women’s Care Center, and he frequently testifies at the Ohio Statehouse on pro-life legislation.
Madeline Pesavento, the outreach director for the Columbus Women’s Care Center, sat on the panel and answered questions relating to the center’s work.
The panel was moderated by Katelyn Kaman, a member of the center’s Board of Directors.
Father Steven P. Beseau, the rector and president of the Pontifical College Josephinum, offered an opening prayer for the evening. He also serves on the center’s board.
“One of the greatest gifts was Madeline asking me to be on the board,” Father Beseau said.
Pesavento shared that 1 in 8 babies in Franklin County are born to mothers who come to the Women’s Care Center and 9 out of 10 women served there choose life for their babies.
She said the center offers parenting classes, is staffed with trained professional counselors and continues to serve women after their baby is born. All services are free.
“We are with women from cradle to kindergarten,” Pesavento said. “They are genuinely grateful for the support they receive inside our doors.”
The panel was asked whether abortion can be deemed essential to women’s health care, which is a frequent argument used by abortion supporters.
Fernandes said the question of abortion being essential is a “narrative” that was introduced several years ago to reflect the changing culture. “It’s absolutely not essential,” he emphasized.
Parker spoke to what he has witnessed as a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital in Westerville.
“I see women coming in with complications from surgical abortions,” he said. “Not all cases are reported, and the abortionist does not know if a woman is having complications afterward.”
For this reason, Parker said, data on abortions reported to the Centers for Disease Control is often “flimsy.”
Health care is about promoting the good, Fernandes said. As a professor of bioethics, he studies medical ethics.
The act of abortion, he said, should be considered in terms of, “Is it good?” and ethics and philosophy will answer that question.
Fernandes said Roe v. Wade greatly affected the medical culture, and it will take awhile to “peel back from the abortion care concept.”
“People in medicine are so committed to the abortion regime,” he said. “The culture can change the law, and the law can change the culture.”
Fernandes gave the example of the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision to legalize interracial marriage. At the time, he said, “only 4% (of the U.S. population) agreed with the decision.”
He said interracial marriage is now widely accepted, and in the same way, it will take a change in culture to accept the Dobbs decision, which states that the right to abortion is not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
When it comes to navigating discussions on the topic, Fernandes advised the audience to “be kind, gentle and listen as much as can be. That is the only way to reach people’s hearts.”
Pesavento agreed that this is the stance of the Women’s Care Center, whose staff members take an “unconditionally loving, nonjudgmental approach” to each woman they serve.
The panel also answered questions on “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety” amendment to the Ohio Constitution proposed by Planned Parenthood, Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom. They need 413,446 valid signatures before July 5 to put the proposal on the ballot in November 2023.
The ballot initiative seeks to amend Article I of the Ohio Constitution by adding a Section 22 declaring that “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on … abortion.”
The petition states that an abortion may not be prohibited “if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
With the passage of the amendment, “nothing interferes with the doctor-patient relationship or the right to have an abortion in the state of Ohio,” Parker said.
He said abortions are currently legal up to 22 weeks in the state, but with an amendment to the Ohio Constitution, “abortion would be allowed in all stages of pregnancy,” meaning, “every abortion is elective,” and the “amendment allows for back-alley abortions.”
Parker said nobody, including doctors, could interfere with an individual’s right to have an abortion, which would create long-term threats to the ability to practice medicine because doctors who morally object to abortion would not have the freedom of conscience protections to refuse to perform an abortion.
The petition is targeting pregnancy health-care centers, Parker said, because if centers have an ultrasound machine and provide such services, they are deemed medical centers and must follow the law.
There are currently two resolutions — one in the Ohio House of Representatives and one in the Ohio Senate – that would initiate a special statewide election on Aug. 8 allowing Ohio citizens to change the number of votes needed to defeat a proposed amendment from a 50% threshold to a 60% threshold, Brey said. In another change, petition signatures would be required from all 88 Ohio counties rather than the current rule of 44 counties.
Fernandes said now is the time for advocacy, prayer and putting boots on the ground to support the Women’s Care Center.
“As my late parents would say, pray,” he said. “Get every single person to do the same.”
Parker said it is possible to bear witness to the faith in daily life and in a professional career.
He wears a crucifix over his medical scrubs while working at the hospital, he said, and his doctor’s office includes an image of the Holy Family and a statue of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a pediatric physician, wife and mother who sacrificed her life for the wellbeing of her unborn child.
Fernandes and Parker encouraged Catholics to be bold, unafraid and willing to sacrifice social acceptance to defend their faith.
“Once we know the truth, we can’t turn away from it.”