According to a video posted to twitter by Ohio State Rep. Gary Click, Planned Parenthood is apparently paying out-of-state workers to gather signatures in support of the “Abortion rights” constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion and other reproductive rights for adults and minors into the Ohio state constitution.
The video posted to Gary Click’s YouTube channel appears to show a professional, out of state canvasser paid by Planned Parenthood collecting signatures in Fremont, Ohio. 413,000 signatures from 44 of the 88 Ohio counties are required to place the proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2023 ballot. Fremont is a city of about 16,000 people in the Greater Toledo metropolitan area.
From the video, it appears that Ohio Rep. Click is approached on the streets of Fremont, Ohio by this canvasser. We later learn he is Marco from Michigan and he has worked collecting signatures for the Michigan campaign. This appears to be in reference to Prop 3 in Michigan which voters approved during the 2022 midterm elections.
Canvasser conveys inaccurate information for nearly $25/hr
Rep. Click summarizes the video on his YouTube channel as follows: Marco from Michigan barely knows what the referendum says, misstated its purpose, and avoided simple questions, all for nearly $25 per hour. DECLINE TO SIGN!
The encounter includes following back and forth:
Click: “So it says ‘to carry out one’s reproductive decisions,’ so that means there’s no age limit on that, right?”
Marco: “No,”
Click: “So that means a child can go have an abortion without her parents knowing?”
Marco: “Yeah so it’s for everybody’s reproductive rights.”
Click: “So you think a child should have the right to an abortion?
Marco: “I believe everyone should have the right to choose.”
Click: “Everyone?”…“So parents don’t mean anything?
Click later asks: “So, do you live here in Fremont?”
Marco: “No, I’m from Michigan. I actually did the campaign in Michigan”
Click: “How do you get from Michigan to here?”
Marco: “So, we go through a petitioning company and then we’re sponsored in through different sponsors, which would be Planned Parenthood, and then yeah.”
When Click asks Marco how much money he made collecting signatures in Ohio, he responds that he made “a little less than” $25 an hour.
When asked how many signatures he’s collected that day, Marco replies, “Enough.”
Questions about kids and puberty blockers ends conversation
When Click asks about sex change hormones and puberty blockers, Marco abruptly ends the conversation.
Click: “Somebody told this thing allows kids to take cross sex hormones and puberty blockers, things like that…”
Marco: ”I’ve read over it and I haven’t picked that up from reading over it but…Like I said I gotta keep moving but hope you have a nice day.”
Representative Click urges Ohioans if approached to sign a petition to “Decline to Sign” and like he did – ask a lot of questions.
More information about “abortion rights” amendment here
