Democratic Senator Nina Turner says these provisions are part of a war on women in this budget.
TURNER: "It is women today. Who will it be tomorrow? We must continue to stand up and lift our voices and push back on the ridiculousness that is going on in the Ohio House when it comes to women and their access. We will not go back. We will not go back, women. Our foremothers fought too hard. We will not go back."
Stephanie Kight with Planned Parenethood of Greater Ohio says if the Ohio House allows these provisions to stay in the budget, many more young Ohio women will end up with sexually transmitted diseases or unintended pregnancies. And she says Ohio will end up paying a big price tag.
KIGHT: "When Texas tried a scheme like this, their cost of providing care went up 15 percent. We don’t have that kind of money in Ohio to increase our costs."
Democratic State Senator Capri Cafaro says lawmakers dealing with the budget need to focus on education, jobs and real budget items -- instead of sex.
CAFARO: "Last time I checked, members of the General Assembly were not elected to be the sex police, OK?"
Cafaro calls this an "extreme war on women."
COATS: "Let me tell you what an extreme war on women is. An extreme war on women is that most of the babies that are aborted are female. That’s an extreme war on women."
That’s John Coats, the head of Ohio Right to Life. He says reprioritizing federal funds would mean more health care services for more women in rural areas. And Coats he makes this analogy about having Planned Parenthood be in charge of those federal dollars now.
COATS: "It’s like the fox guarding the henhouse. It’s like someone that wants to throw the stone and hide their hand. They say that they're interested about women's health, but yet on the other hand, they provide abortion services."
The bill to reprioritize funding for Planned Parenthood is not new. Efforts to pass that bill failed during the lame duck session of the last General Assembly.
But the amendment to make it illegal for sex ed to include gateway sexual activity is new. The Republican leader of the Ohio House Finance Committee, Rep. Ron Amstutz, isn’t saying which lawmaker introduced the sex ed amendment into the budget. He says he wants to have a conversation about it.
AMSTUTZ: "Since there’s so much interest in this amendment, perhaps I need to go back and read it again, and then we can have more conversation about it."
He’s not alone. Republican House Speaker Batchelder says he also wants to take a closer look at it. When asked to define what gateway sexual activity is, Batchelder responds this way:
BATCHELDER: "I am a little bit older than most people here, so I don’t have a total understanding of these things. However, I believe that it has something to do with suggesting that people ought to engage in some practices that people of my generation wouldn’t think so."
INGLES: "But is that clearly defined in law? ...There’s a $5,000 fine, too -- up to."
BATCHELDER: "Civil fine?"
INGLES: "Yes."
BATCHELDER: "I don't know. I can’t speak to it. It wasn’t the law when I was a judge."
Batchelder says he and other lawmakers will be getting more details about the gateway sexual activity amendment, as well as the Planned Parenthood funding reprioritization plan, in a meeting with other legislative leaders.
BATCHELDER: "I’m confident that tonight there will be full discussion of probably anything to do with sex."
