Voters Select Pro-Life Candidates for Supreme Courts in Multiple States
As the dust settles following Election Day, results show that voters in various states elected state Supreme Court judges whom pro-life groups supported.
In Texas, three state Supreme Court judges were reelected for a six-year term: Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine, and Jane Bland, according to The Texan. Texas Right to Life Committee and Texas Alliance for Life both endorsed Blacklock in January of this year, according to VoteSmart. Texas Alliance for Life endorsed Devine and Bland as well, VoteSmart reports.
In Ohio, three Republican state Supreme Court candidates were elected: Megan Shanahan, Dan Hawkins, and incumbent Justice Joseph Deters, according to the Ohio Capital Journal. Greater Cincinnati Right to Life endorsed Shanahan in 2016, according to guides.vote. The Ohio Right to Life Board of Trustees endorsed Shanahan, Hawkins, and Deters for state Supreme Court justice in August.
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President of Ohio Right to Life Mike Gonidakis said, “Ohio Right to Life is proud to strongly recommend [them.]”
In Arizona, voters reelected several justices who have previously at least sometimes defended unborn life.
Arizona voters reelected state Supreme Court Judges Kathyrn King and Clint Bolick, according to the Arizona Capitol Times.
In April, King and Bolick voted in favor of upholding a longstanding pro-life state law, and the Court’s ruling effectively banned all abortion in the state, as CatholicVote previously reported. In May, however, state legislators and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs repealed the law, expanding abortion in the state up to 15 weeks.
In August, the state Supreme Court sided against a pro-life organization that sought to prevent an abortion measure from appearing on the state’s November ballot. The organization, Arizona Right to Life, argued that the measure’s language, which appeared to generally limit abortion to around 24 weeks, was misleading. The organization argued, as many warned, that the measure’s language actually allows for abortion up to birth. The state Supreme Court’s ruling allowed the measure to appear on the ballot.
The measure passed this month, enshrining a so-called “right to abortion” in the state’s constitution, according to Ballotpedia.
In Florida, voters reelected state Supreme Court Justices Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso. In April, both justices ruled in favor of upholding Florida’s law protecting unborn life after 15 weeks, according to the Pensacola News Journal. They were also two of the three justices who dissented when the Court ruled to allow an abortion amendment to appear on the state’s ballot in November.
As CatholicVote previously reported, that amendment failed to pass last week.
LifeNews Note: McKenna Snow writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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