CLEVELAND — In Ohio, Republican voters are deciding right now if Matt Dolan, Frank LaRose or Bernie Moreno will be the one to challenge Democrat Sherrod Brown in November in the race for the U.S. Senate.
Expected to be a significant issue for voters in the fall, as it was in 2022 and 2023, is the issue of abortion.
In extensive conversations with each of the hopefuls, News 5 spoke with them about where they stood and just what they would accept when it comes to access to abortion.
Frank LaRose told News 5, "To me, one of the reasons government exists is to protect the vulnerable against the powerful and to me, protecting unborn human life is crucial. Now, I don't sit here in the context of an interview and negotiate how many weeks or what exceptions or whatever else. What I would like to see is for the U.S. to have a standard that protects life, and I don't know what that would end up being, but I would like to see something done in the U.S. Senate that does that, and I would be supportive of something like that but as far as a certain number of weeks or whatever else, this is not the context to negotiate that," he said.
"I want to see us do things that affirm life, and that doesn't just mean being pro-birth; that means truly being pro-life," added LaRose. "That means making adoption easier and less costly. It also means making sure that there are supportive services for families that want to have a child. That means supporting pregnancy centers, supporting things like home visiting programs that help first-time parents through those trials of the first few years."
These are things that fellow Republican Matt Dolan told News 5 he also supports. As for what he'll accept? "I believe in the three exceptions, life of the mother, rape and incest. When bills came up before the Senate that did not have those in them I didn't vote for them. So I have a pro-life record that has actually reduced abortions in Ohio, but I stayed true to my commitment, and I think my position accurately reflects where Ohio is and what Ohioans want," Dolan said.
Bernie Moreno believes a support system is critical.
"We got to put policies in place that make it less expensive to have children, less expensive to raise children, make certain that women have access to good healthcare," he said. "Let's make sure that adoption services are more readily available, let's make certain that we fund pregnancy centers that really take care of women not only while they're having the baby but afterward and defund organizations like Planned Parenthood, which are basically abortion mills."
He continued, "And then as much as there's a federal role, we can get to a place where there's a 15-week floor standard that says after 15 weeks we have common sense restrictions that don't allow elective late-term abortions, and we can have consensus around this issue once and for all."
Moreno reiterated he would support in the U.S. Senate a federal standard for abortion.
"I would vote for a national standard that says after 15 weeks we have common sense restrictions that again eliminate elective late-term abortions," he said.
LaRose fought to defeat Issue 1 last fall, which enshrined into the state's constitution abortion and reproductive rights. When asked if federal law would take this question out of the hands of the state, he said, "No, not at all; what I'm saying is there should be a minimum standard, something that we as a country agree on as kind of the standard and then states can go beyond that if they wish."
For his part, Dolan said he would have to see the legislation before deciding on federal action.
"I'd have to look at what's happening around the country. If late-term abortion is becoming the norm in our country because of these groups putting on petitions, yeah, I would look to a ban," Dolan said. "The goal, hopefully is to keep it in the states and have the states decide. But I don't believe that our country is a country that is going to stand for having abortion on demand all the way through the pregnancy. I don't believe that's America and if that is, by special interest, becoming America I do think the federal government should step up."
