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Our Communications Director Gabriel Mann testified against unfair, rigged congressional maps during this hearing of the Ohio Redistricting Commission on October 30, 2025.

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10/31/25 Update: The Ohio Redistricting Commission voted to approve a map. Our statement is on our Press Release page.

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Gabriel Mann, Communications Director
Ohio Redistricting Commission
October 30, 2025

Co-Chairs Antonio, Stewart, and members of the Redistricting Commission, thank you for accepting my testimony today. My name is Gabriel Mann, and I am the communications director for Abortion Forward, formerly Pro-Choice Ohio. I am here today urging you to pass a congressional district map that represents the people of Ohio, like the maps submitted by the Senate Democrats or the Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission-drawn map that the Equal Districts coalition re-submitted.

I’d like to start by asking a simple question: What are we doing here? We are 24 hours away from the constitutionally mandated deadline and we still haven’t seen a map proposal. On top of that, it’s Trick or Treat night, which means that you’re holding an important public hearing that impacts families at the exact hour when many parents across Ohio are committed to spending this time with their children in a treasured tradition. Cutting families out of the legislative process as you sit here and consider maps that cut families out of our democracy is unacceptable.

Ohio families deserve and need representation in government, and this process has shown exactly how much legislators in Ohio want to rule us, not represent us. This is not the time for you to try to make up for the fact that you’ve been ignoring constitutionally required deadlines.

In 2023, we saw a clear example of why gerrymandered districts fail to represent the views of the voters that elected officials are supposed to be representing. Fifty-seven percent of the voters that cast ballots in November 2023 voted in favor of the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, enshrining the right to abortion and other reproductive health care services in the Ohio Constitution. Why did the voters have to do that? Because for over a decade the gerrymandered Ohio Legislature had been going against their will enacting more than 30 bans and restrictions on abortion. Not only did voters have to go to the ballot, collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures, to get the measure qualified to appear on the ballot, but the same voters had to come out and vote in a special election just months before the November election to fight back a legislatively created constitutional amendment solely focused on making the November election impossible to win.

This gerrymandered Ohio Legislature has one goal: rigging the process in their favor because they cannot win based on the merits of their arguments. You know the policies you are passing do not represent the will of the people, you read the same polling I do.

In 2024, 5.8 million Ohioans came out to vote in the November general election. 55% of those voted for the Republican candidate for president. 44% percent of them voted for the Democrat. A representative map for Ohio should be one that comes close to those numbers, giving Ohioans from both parties the representation that matches the state composition. Our current congressional map gives Ohioans 10 Republican and 5 Democratic seats in congress, a 67% to 33% breakdown far from the representational number of 55% to 45%.

In the United States, we have a representative democracy. The people elect individuals to represent the needs of our communities in government. Unfortunately, states like Ohio have strayed from this foundational principle, creating district boundaries not based upon representation, but biased to a single party to win elections. The very foundation of our democracy is at risk when the people of our state no longer have true representation from their elected officials.

I am outraged that this hearing is the first and likely only opportunity for testimony before the second deadline in this redistricting process. I’m also highly appalled that the public has been completely cut out of this process. Back-room meetings outside the public view are not how to draw maps. Leadership means coming together and doing what is right for the people you serve.

President Trump has dictated to his supporters that they should do whatever they can to rig the election to favor Republicans in 2026 and beyond. States like Texas have followed that edict and once again taken away the voices of the people that leaders are supposed to represent. Ohio cannot and should not follow that trend and further rig our already gerrymandered congressional districts. This process should not be about which party wins or loses. It should be about ensuring that voters win; that the voices of the people are heard in our government, and Ohioans have elected officials that will actually represent the needs of their community.

The map submitted by the Democrats and the Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission drawn map re-submitted by the Equal Districts coalition both meet both the spirit and the letter of the 2018 voter-approved constitutional reform. We encourage this committee and the legislature to adopt one of these maps for bipartisan passage before tomorrow’s deadline to give Ohioans what they deserve: a representative democracy where the voices and needs of their communities are heard.

Ohioans deserve true representation in our government. When we don’t get good maps, Ohioans lose, communities lose.

Molly Rampe Thomas is the president of the Abortion Forward board and the founder and CEO of JustChoice. She testified against House Bill 324 before the Ohio House Health Committee on October 8, 2025.

Molly Rampe Thomas, CEO and Founder of JustChoice
HB 324 Opponent Testimony

Chairperson Schmidt, Vice-Chair Deeter, and Ranking Member Dr. Somani, thank you for the
opportunity to speak today. My name is Molly Rampe Thomas, and I am a Founder and CEO
testifying on behalf of JustChoice.

Our core belief at JustChoice is Justice is Choice. This means the right of every person to make
their own healthcare decisions with dignity and without burden. I am here today in strong
opposition to House Bill 324 because I have seen firsthand the human cost of the barriers it
seeks to create. I am here for the single parent who cannot take another unpaid day off work,
the survivor of domestic violence for whom a mandatory clinic visit is a terrifying risk, the rural
Ohioan who must travel hundreds of miles and find childcare for a simple appointment.

I oppose H.B. 324 because it is built on a foundation that is not just weak, but deliberately
manufactured.

The report used to justify this bill is not science for many reasons:
● It is unverifiable because its authors refuse to reveal their data.
● It is deliberately misleading because it labels routine, non-urgent health visits as lifethreatening
emergencies.
● It’s policy prescriptions are ideologically driven, with no connection to its own analysis.

To shape legislation around a document of such poor credibility is to abandon evidence-based
governance. This decision ignores decades of rigorous, transparent medical research that
consistently affirms the safety of telehealth medicine.

At its heart, justice is choice and it is accountability. As you consider this decision, I sincerely
hope you will feel accountable to the people of Ohio—to their needs and their rights. I urge you
to reject this damaging bill and the flawed process that brought it forward.

Thank you for your time. I am happy to take any questions the committee may have.

Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance are currently accepting applications for their Boards of Directors!

We encourage you to apply if you’re passionate about protecting and advancing reproductive rights, increasing access to reproductive health care — especially abortion care — pursuing policy changes that support abortion access, and value reproductive justice and autonomy for communities across our state.

What do you need to know about joining the Abortion Forward or the Abortion Forward Alliance board?

Abortion Forward, a 501(c)(4) organization, and Abortion Forward Alliance, a 501(c)(3) organization, are grounded in the principles of reproductive justice. We are working to maintain and expand abortion access in Ohio. We are looking for board members who are interested in engaging in this strategic work and support this next phase of our work. If you’re interested and willing to roll up your sleeves and get to work, we need you!

The boards and their members have specific roles and associated responsibilities as the two organizations’ governing bodies. Learn more about this in the position description below.

We welcome applications from all who are interested in supporting Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance through board service. It is helpful for us to have board members with a variety of specific skills, expertise, and lived experience. If you have any expertise in these areas, please include this information in your application: HR, accounting, fundraising, PR and media, business and financial planning, organizing, advocacy, electoral politics (ideally in the reproductive health, rights, and justice sector but any and all social justice expertise is welcome). We are also committed to the inclusion of people who are deeply connected to the following communities: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+, people living with disabilities, people in rural communities, and those in Southwest Ohio and Southeast Ohio.

Ready to apply? Please fill out this application form and have two reference forms completed on your behalf. We are accepting rolling applications through October 31, 2025 with the goal of onboarding new Board members in January 2026 with the expectation of attending the March board meeting.

If you have any questions, please email board@abortionforward.org.

We hope that you’ll consider applying to join one of our boards and thank you for your continued support for Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance!

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Abortion Forward/Abortion Forward Alliance
Board of Directors Position Description

Board members shall:
● Be committed to the missions of Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance.
Attend four 4-hour board meetings per year (2 virtual and 2 in person), monthly planning meetings (1 hour), and other committee meetings and training as necessary.
● Assist in developing policies and understand their responsibility to help carry out the agreed upon goals.
● Be accountable to and supportive of other board members enabling one another to fulfill board commitments.
● Be a spokesperson in the community for Abortion Forward and/or Abortion Forward Alliance as needed.
● Approve and monitor the annual budget and monthly financial reports and ensure adequate financial resources.
● Help with the fundraising efforts for Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance fundraising efforts. This can include donating or raising money, helping solicit other gifts or identifying potential donors, participating in fundraising events and volunteering time to the organization. Overall, we ask for our board to be a high priority in your charitable giving.
● Participate in and monitor strategic planning.
● Participate on at least one committee: Current committees include Governance, Board Development, Human Resources/Personnel, Finance, Fundraising/Development, and Political Action Committee.
● Promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the organization.
● Nominate/supply names of prospective new board members.
● Recruit new supporters and volunteers.
● Represent the organization with a values-aligned approach.
● Build supportive working relationships with staff.
● Participate in hiring and firing the Executive Director.
● Participate in supporting and evaluating the Executive Director.
● Ensure legal and ethical integrity.
● Adhere to the conflict of interest, confidentiality and other policies of the organization.

Board Expectations
Board Members can expect to spend approximately 3-5 hours per month on board work including active participation in meetings, calls, and committees. Additionally, board members are expected to communicate their ability to attend meetings, calls, and committees to the Board President.

Board terms are three years. Each Board Member is expected to serve a minimum of one full term.

As a governing board, the board of directors is not involved with the day-to-day operations of Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance. That work is overseen by the Executive Director and executed by staff. Board Members at Abortion Forward and Abortion Forward Alliance are expected to be responsive to and provide strategic guidance to the Executive Director, and assist with fundraising, raising visibility, and deepening community connections to the organization.

Accountability
Missing more than two quarterly board meetings, without communication to the Board President, annually for any reason may be grounds for dismissal from the board.

Board Officer Roles and Responsibilities
Each board has officers: a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Both the Secretary and Treasurer sit on both the c3 and c4 boards. Officer Terms are one year.

Board President
The President is responsible for calling for and presiding over board meetings, executive committee meetings, and overseeing the Board of Directors and board policies and actions. The President serves as the primary contact for any board issues that may arise and sets goals and objectives with the Board and ensures that they are met. Additionally, the President is the board’s official spokesperson and serves as an ex-officio member of any ad hoc board committees.

Vice President
The Vice President is responsible for assuming the President’s duties in their absence. Additionally, they are tasked with working with the Executive Director for all Board at-large and officer nominations and elections.

Treasurer
The Treasurer serves as the primary financial officer of the organization and, in collaboration with the Executive Director or another designated staff person, is responsible for reviewing monthly financial reports, providing timely financial reports to the Board of Directors, ensures the submission of tax and legal compliance reports to the appropriate government entities, and oversees the annual audit and budget processes.

Secretary
The Secretary is responsible for recording, maintaining, and disseminating the organization’s records, such as Board meeting minutes and other relevant organizational documents. Additionally, the secretary is responsible for conducting all votes taken (mail, email, verbal) during board business, and sharing this information with the Executive Director.

On September 22, 2025, Abortion Forward Communications Director Gabriel Mann testified against the Republican plan to redraw Ohio’s congressional districts.

Before he read his prepared remarks, Gabriel added some clarifying notes for the committee in response to misinformation heard earlier in the hearing:

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a deadline!

The Ohio Constitution, Article XIX, Section 1 (D) 

“Not later than the last day of September of the year after the year in which a plan expires under division (C)(3)(e) of this section, the general assembly shall pass a congressional district plan in the form of a bill by the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the members of each house of the general assembly, including the affirmative vote of at least one-half of the members of each of the two largest political parties represented in that house. A congressional district plan that is passed under this division and becomes law shall remain effective until the next year ending in the numeral one, except as provided in Section 3 of this article.”

These are rules Speaker Matt Huffman helped write and sponsored in a bill that is now codified into our state constitution!

The Republican-led ballot board did write the ballot language in 2024, just like they did in 2023. Secretary LaRose abused that privilege both times. 

Gerrymandering also impacts statewide races. 

There’s been so many people in this hearing reading dictionary definitions of gerrymandering, but nowhere near enough discussing the fact that you all are making government worse.

It’s gerrymandering when you produce bad policies that hurt people.

It’s gerrymandering when you lock in elections before voters get to vote. 

It’s gerrymandering when those elected officials don’t listen to voters because they weren’t picked by voters.

I’m here to illustrate one specific bad outcome that is a direct result of a broken redistricting process, because our current maps our gerrymandered.

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Gabriel’s prepared testimony, as written by our Deputy Director, Jaime Miracle:

Gabriel Mann, Communications Director 
Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting 
September 22, 2025 

Co-Chairs Timkin & Bird and members of the Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting, thank you for accepting my testimony today. My name is Gabriel Mann, and I am the communications director for Abortion Forward, formerly Pro-Choice Ohio. I am here today urging you to pass a congressional district map that represents the people of Ohio, like the maps submitted by the Senate Democrats or the OCRC-drawn map that the Equal Districts coalition re-submitted. 

In 2023, we saw a clear example of why gerrymandered districts fail to represent the views of the voters’ elected officials are supposed to be representing. Fifty-seven percent of the voters that cast ballots in November 2023 voted in favor of the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, enshrining the right to abortion and other reproductive health care services in the Ohio Constitution. Why did the voters have to do that? Because for over a decade the gerrymandered Ohio Legislature had been going against their will enacting more than 30 bans and restrictions on abortion. Not only did voters have to go to the ballot, collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures, to get the measure qualified to appear on the ballot, but the same voters had to come out and vote in a special election just months before the November election to fight back a legislatively created constitutional amendment solely focused on making the November election impossible to win. This gerrymandered Ohio Legislature has one goal: rigging the process in their favor because they cannot win based on the merits of their arguments. You know the policies you are passing do not represent the will of the people, you read the same polling I do. 

In 2024, 5.8 million Ohioans came out to vote in the November general election. Fifty-five percent of those voted for the Republican candidate for president. Forty-four percent of them voted for the Democratic candidate for president. A representative map for Ohio should be one that comes close to those numbers, giving Ohioans from both parties the representation that matches the state composition. Our current congressional map gives Ohioans 10 Republican and 5 Democratic seats in congress, a 67% to 33% breakdown far from the representational number of 55% to 45%. 

In the United States, we have a representative democracy—the people elect individuals to represent the needs of our communities in government. Unfortunately, states like Ohio have strayed from this foundational principle, creating district boundaries not based upon representation, but biased to a single party to win elections. The very foundation of our democracy is at risk when the people of our state no longer have true representation from their elected officials.   

I am disappointed that this hearing is the first and likely only hearing before the first deadline in this redistricting process. We have not yet even seen a proposed map from the Republican leaders in the legislature. Leaders are making no attempt to work in a bipartisan manner to do what is best for Ohio, which would be to pass representational bipartisan maps before the September 30^th deadline.  

The map submitted by the Democrats and the OCRC drawn map re-submitted by the Equal Districts Coalition both meet both the spirit and the letter of the 2018 voter-approved constitutional reform. We encourage this committee and the legislature to adopt one of these maps for bipartisan passage before September 30^th to give Ohioans what they deserve: a representative democracy where the voices and needs of their communities are heard.  

Ohioans deserve true representation in our government. When we don’t get good maps, Ohioans lose, communities lose.   

The state budget process in Ohio this year was long, confusing, and frankly one of the cruelest examples of how far our legislature will go to score points with their political base while simultaneously screwing over people in our state. We’ll have more to share about the final version of the bill next week. But recently some news was released that stopped us in our tracks: the final version of the state budget gave the Department of Children and Youth less funding for various programs and certain goals were having to be adjusted.  

One of the goals listed for adjustment was Ohio’s dismal infant mortality rate. Under the initial version of the budget proposed by Governor DeWine, their goal was to reduce the rate from 7.1 per 1,000 births to 4.4 per 1,000 births. But because of the cuts the legislature made to the Governor’s budget, that goal was instead reduce from 7.1 to 6 deaths per 1,000 births. The so-called “pro-life” party reduced program funding to the point where the department had to reduce the number of lives that could be saved. How “pro-life” of them! 

Rates are hard to picture, so let’s do some math: In 2024, there were 123,745 births in Ohio. At the current infant mortality rate (7.1 per 1,000 live births) that means approximately 879 babies tragically died before their first birthday. If the department’s initial goal of reducing the rate to 4.4 per 1,000 was achieved, that number would drop to 544. But with the revised goal of 6 per 1,000, we will only reduce that number to 742. Hundreds more babies could be at risk for death because the legislature cut the funding for this program by more than $26 million dollars over the next two years. According to the CDC Ohio ranks in the bottom 10 states for infant mortality rates. This has been a crisis for a long time now – and our legislature continues to underfund and ignore it.  

But Jaime, you say, the state just doesn’t have that money to spend! Well, my friend, that is where you are wrong, because the state spent nearly the exact same amount ($25 million) funding anti-abortion fake health centers, also known as CPCs. Five million of those dollars are giving high tech ultrasound machines to these centers who do not have the expertise or staff to properly use them. A good friend of mine likes to say that “budgets are moral documents”. They show where the priorities are for the legislators who write and pass them. In giving $25 million dollars to centers who peddle misinformation and shame while leaving real providers and trusted community programs with pennies and a prayer, the Ohio legislature has made their priorities abundantly clear – and our wellbeing is at the bottom of the list. 

Want to learn more about the harms caused by CPCs? Check out our latest research and information You can also check out some great new research from the Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch about the dangers of these centers conducting non-medical, non-diagnostic ultrasounds on people with untrained staff. Spoiler alert: a CPC in Massachusetts was sued because they endangered the life of a pregnant woman when they misdiagnosed an ectopic pregnancy. Yes, that’s right – the state of Ohio is giving fake health centers $5 million in funding to get fancy 3D ultrasound machines that could risk the health and well-being of the people who go to these centers for help.    

Want to do more? Talk to your friends and family about the dangers of CPCs! Attend one of our upcoming Ramp Up for Repro trainings and learn how you can combat misinformation and abortion stigma.