Tag Archives: John Kasich

News

Pro-life governor John Kasich passes laws to promote adoption

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I'm Scheming Unborn Baby, and I approve this decision
I’m Scheming Unborn Baby, and I approve this decision

Story from Life News.

Excerpt:

On Friday, Governor Kasich signed Ohio Right to Life’s adoption reform legislation, S.B. 250, following historic bipartisan majority votes from the Senate, 29-1, and the House of Representatives, 81-4. This adoption reform will eliminate unnecessary costs, protect birth parents and adoptive families, prevent fraud and minimize the bureaucracy in the Ohio adoption process.

The following is a statement from Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life:

At present, middle-class and low-income Ohio families are essentially unable to adopt due to the accumulation of expenses during the adoption process. The adoption reform legislation targets these expenses by increasing the current $1,500 tax credit up to $10,000.

Thanks to an increased tax credit and a shortened adoption decree challenge period, Ohioans will now partake in a more simplified, affordable process that remains compassionate and supportive to birth parents.

John Kasich is definitely in the top rank of governors, along with Scott Walker, Mike Pence, Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal. Each of these governors has signed into law policies that were helpful to unborn children.

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signed an ultrasound bill that reduced the number of abortions:

Last year, abortions in Wisconsin dropped 4.4 percent and they declined 7.4 percent the year before. Now, Wisconsin Right to Life informs LifeNews abortions int he Badger State are down another 16 percent.

“Last week, Wisconsin abortion providers stated under oath that abortions have decreased from 6,927 in 2012 to roughly 5,800 in 2013,”  stated Barbara L. Lyons, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life.  “This is another sharp decline of approximately 16%, continuing Wisconsin’s record as having some of the lowest abortion numbers in the country.”

[…]The abortion drop comes after pro-life Governor Scott Walker signed multiple pro-life bills into law.

In 2012, Walker added to his pro-life list of accomplishments today by signing bills the pro-life movement supported, including measures to stop abortion funding in Obamacare and webcam abortions.

Last year, Walker signed Senate Bill 206 (Sonya’s Law) into law.  This important new law requires that women seeking abortions in Wisconsin be given the opportunity to see their unborn children through ultrasound.

Texas governor Rick Perry signed a ban on late-term abortions, and a law that closed abortion clinics:

Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a pro-life bill into law July 19 banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at hospitals close to their abortuaries. The immediate result was Planned Parenthood’s decision to shutter three of its clinics even as pro-abortion activists vowed to work to overturn the law — and as at least one abortionist reportedly indicated he would defy the law.

[…]The Associated Press reported that in addition to the ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the law “restricts abortions to surgical centers and requires doctors who work at abortion clinics to have hospital admitting privileges. Only five of the 42 abortion clinics in Texas … currently meet those new requirements. Clinics will have a year to either upgrade their facilities or shut down after the law takes effect in October.”

Immediately after Perry signed the bill into law, Planned Parenthood threw in the towel on three of its abortion facilities, closing their doors rather than shelling out money for the requisite upgrades.

Lousiana governor Bobby Jindal signed pro-life bills to close abortion clinics:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal today signed pro-life bills that could close three of the state’s five abortion clinics. Jindal has been a staunchly pro-life governor and he is putting into law more pieces of pro-life legislation that has, under his administration, made Louisiana one of the most pro-life states in the nation.

The Louisiana state legislature sent to Jindal HB 388, the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, that the Planned Parenthood abortion business says could close three of the five abortion clinics in the state.

“This bill will give women the health and safety protections they deserve,” Jindal said.

When the state of Texas clamped down on abortion clinics that could not follow basic health and safety standards and failed to ensure abortion practitioners had admitting privileges at local hospitals in cases where women are injured in botched abortions, abortion clinics closed down because they couldn’t comply. As many as 20 Texas abortion clinics have closed or stopping doing abortions.

Now, Louisiana is following suit.

Indiana governor Mike Pence signed a bill to stop insurance coverage of abortions:

Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest commended Indiana Governor Mike Pence and leading pro-life legislators for enacting a measure that protects Hoosiers from forced funding of abortion-related services via their health insurance plans.

This week Governor Pence signed into law HB 1123, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Thompson, which is based on AUL model legislation.

The bill prohibits “accident and sickness insurance policies” from covering abortion in most circumstances except through a separate rider. This law makes Indiana the ninth state to prohibit private insurance plans operating within their states from covering most abortions.

Republican governors do more than just balance the books and grow the economy. You will never see Democrat governors signing bills to help unborn children like this.

In case you’re wondering, Scott Walker is my pick for President in 2016, but I’ll take any of the governors in this post. At least we know they can marshal pro-life bills into pro-life laws.

News

Ohio governor John Kasich signs legislation to crack down on sex-trafficking

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From Cleveland.com, a story about Ohio’s Republican governor.

Excerpt:

Gov. John Kasich intends to sign wide-ranging legislation on Friday morning designed to crack down on sex trafficking in Ohio.

House Bill 130, which passed the legislature unanimously, increases penalties for those who solicit minors or the developmentally disabled, strengthens protections for victims, and makes it easier to prosecute human traffickers.

The state estimates that each year an estimated 1,078 Ohio children become victims of human trafficking and 3,016 more are at risk for exploitation.

Under the bill, which will take effect immediately, buying sex from a 16- or 17-year-old will now be a fifth-degree felony instead of a misdemeanor. Soliciting a younger child will be a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

The measure also terminates parental rights for those who have trafficked their children and prohibits sex ads that depict a minor or are for a massage parlor.

Kasich will sign the bill at 11 a.m. at the Ohio Department of Transportation headquarters in Columbus. Northeast Media Group staff writer Jeremy Pelzer will cover the event live in the comments section below.

I’m really not sure who could look at a child and think anything other than “this little human is made to know God, love God and love other people, so I will act in a way that helps them to do that, and does not not pull them away from that”. We’re not supposed to be hurting children, because children’s needs are more important than adult selfishness.

You know this story reminds me of one to the reasons why I am for marriage. I think that when a child is born into a home where his or her mother and father are presented and united in their obligation to love that child, then things like this do not happen. Sex-trafficking is something that happens to children who do not have a stable, loving environment to grow up in. But what are we doing to restrain ourselves to make sure that we do the things that we need to do to wrap sex in a layer of responsibility? Responsible sex doesn’t mean “safe” sex. It means sex that is contained inside the boundaries of a marriage and that any children who are produced are not seen as commodities, but as gifts that we are responsible for.

Commentary

Ohio governor John Kasich’s energy policy: sustainability and job creation

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All of the above makes a lot of sense in Ohio, as John Kasich explains in the Columbus Dispatch.

Excerpt:

Ohio’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors are highly productive and among our state’s largest employers. They’re also big energy users and part of the reason why Ohio ranks seventh nationally in energy generation.

With energy being so important to major Ohio job creators, it’s critical that we do everything possible to make it inexpensive, plentiful and reliable.

Unfortunately, Ohio faces major headwinds on energy from Washington. The U.S. lacks the kind of comprehensive energy policy it takes to achieve energy independence and help job creators secure low prices and reliable supplies. Furthermore, coal — which supplies 86 percent of our electricity — irritates the current president, and his administration’s EPA repeatedly threatens more red tape on Ohio’s growing shale-oil-and-gas industry.

This uncertainty from Washington isn’t sustainable for Ohio. If we want to see more Ohioans working again, we need to foster low costs and greater certainty in energy, and if we can’t get it with help from Washington, then Ohio must seek it ourselves.

That’s his thesis – now let’s see some of the details:

[M]y administration worked with Ohio State University and Battelle to convene the Governor’s 21st Century Energy & Economic Summit. Over two days, the summit brought together 50 panelists from business, government, academia and environmental groups and more than 1,000 attendees to discuss the latest, brightest thinking on energy. These conversations were the first step in helping Ohio’s policymakers develop a comprehensive energy policy to support job creation. That work continued over the winter and produced a comprehensive plan covering the full range of Ohio energy issues. I’m proud to say I’m signing that plan into law on Monday.

A major focus of Ohio’s new energy policy is oil-and-gas production in our state’s Utica shale formations. With new technologies making it possible to tap oil, natural gas and natural-gas liquids in shale rock deep beneath the surface, the potential exists to permanently lift the economy of eastern Ohio and turn Ohio into a major oil-and-gas producer. It’s only smart to make sure that as this new industry comes on the scene, strong policies are in place that can help ensure its safety and success. Ohio’s energy policy does that by modernizing our regulatory structure to protect the public, the environment and the industry’s workers and to facilitate the industry’s growth.

Ohio’s new energy policy also promotes clean-energy generation. While Ohio’s manufacturers are certainly big energy users, they’re also potential sources of clean energy. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that as much as 2,000 megawatts of energy could be generated by capturing and reusing the waste heat in Ohio factories. That’s enough to power more than 1.4 million Ohio homes. To help encourage this, Ohio’s new energy policy adds waste heat to the list of clean-energy sources, along with solar and wind, that can earn special “renewable energy credits,” credits that manufacturers can then sell for extra income.

Other highlights of Ohio’s new energy policy include efforts to encourage the use of cars that run on natural gas, to improve state buildings’ energy efficiency, to get electricity to the places where it’s most needed to create jobs, to create programs that link Ohioans who need jobs with training for the new jobs in the oil-and-gas industry, and to make valuable investments in clean-coal research   and technology.

If I had to pick the 3 best governors in the USA, I would pick Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. These guys punch way above their weight, and all 3 states are swing states. You have to have better ideas to win those states. You have to win on the merits.