Recently, a Columbus man pled guilty to attempted murder for trying to force his girlfriend to have an abortion. Dominic Holt-Reid was arrested last October after he pointed a handgun at his girlfriend and drove her to an East Side Columbus abortion clinic for a scheduled appointment, even though she told him that she didn't want to go through with the procedure.

The irony in this story is that had the girlfriend desired an abortion, there would be no offense. There is more irony in that other men, perhaps similar to Holt-Reid, took their girlfriends and paid for them to have abortions in the very same abortuary on the very same day that he drove his girlfriend there by force.

Since 1996, Ohio law has provided that there can be a separate criminal offense for killing or injuring a woman and killing or injuring her unborn child. This strongly reflects the simple biological fact that there are indeed two human lives in every pregnancy. Sadly, since Roe v. Wade, current law also allows for the killing of an unborn child as long as it is a "choice."

Simply put: when a pregnant woman wants an abortion, killing her unborn baby is her protected right. But when a pregnant woman does not want an abortion, killing her unborn baby is then considered homicide, and the one who forced her to have the abortion faces serious criminal charges (and rightfully so).  It is absolutely absurd that one person determines whether the life of another is murder or just another legal abortion.

Thankfully, the mother in question was protected and her baby has since been born and is doing well. Thanks to pro-life Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien, the mother received justice, her baby has received precious life and the father, Holt-Reid, will receive what he rightly deserves. But unfortunately, until Roe v. Wade is overturned, we can never give all unborn children the same protection and justice that this woman and her baby received. "Equal justice under the law" will continue to be denied to millions of those most vulnerable, the unborn.

Read more about this story in the Columbus Dispatch. Click here.

Posted by Erin Cain on 5/5/11