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At OHEA.ORG/ More big developments on abortion, including fallout from a blockbuster story on abortion and rape.

And the major party candidates for U.S. Senate speak out on an issue they're both hitting in their campaigns, the economy and inflation.

That's all this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Another big week on the issue of abortion in Ohio, culminating in the verification of a story from the Indianapolis Star that had gotten international attention.

A man from Guatemala has been charged with raping a ten year old Columbus girl in May.

She had traveled to Indiana for an abortion three days after Ohio's ban on the procedure after the detection of fetal cardiac activity took effect last month.

That situation was part of a story about people going to other states for abortions following the US Supreme Court decision striking down the constitutional right.

The procedure nationwide.

For days, there was outrage from abortion rights supporters about the need for the young rape victim to travel.

And there were questions raised by Republicans as to whether the story was real.

Including by Attorney General Dave Yost on Fox News on Tuesday.

He said there was, in his words, not a whisper about an investigation into such a rape case in Ohio.

Other than the comments from the doctor quoted by the Indy Star, Ohio's heartbeat law has a medical emergency exception.

It broader than just the life of the mother.

She'd this young girl, if she exists and if this horrible thing actually happened to or breaks my heart to think about it, she did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment.

Ohio's law states that a doctor must declare in writing that the abortion is necessary, quote, to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible able impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.

Critics have long said that's vague.

Yost never said in that Fox interview or in others why he thought the story might be made up.

But in an interview with my Statehouse News Bureau colleague Joe Ingles after the announcement of the arrest, Yost did not apologize for his comments and said the doctor who talked the Indy Star reporters about the girl is a, quote, political activist.

The questions I was raising were about the Indianapolis Star and the doctor who made national public statements and the red flags that appeared around that story as day after day There wasn't even any evidence that the crime has been committed.

Much less that there was going to be the I'm delighted that there have been some things that happened about it, but that is not the question of believing a survivor who you sit down and talk with her about her story and you go through the evidence and then you say Well, I don't believe this.

That is a different kind of say than anybody can say, frankly, and probably have a little bit of a political ax to grind.

Republican US Congressman Jim Jordan also shared his rejection of the initial story with a tweet that was deleted after the announcement of the arrest of 27 year old Gerson.

Fuentes was being held on $2 million bond in Franklin County.

Jordan then tweeted an article that notes Wentz's immigration status in the headline.

The case got the attention of other national leaders including President Biden, ten years old, ten years old, raped, six weeks pregnant, already traumatized, was forced to travel to another state.

Imagine being that little girl.

Just I'm not serious.

Just imagine being a little girl, ten years old, if anyone believe that.

So Ohio's majority view that that should not be able to be dealt with.

Or in any other state in the nation.

A ten year old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist child.

I can tell you what, I don't I can't think of anything as much more extreme.

And the OBGYN that some Republicans put at the center of the story, Dr. Caitlin Barnard tweeted out on Thursday.

My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us.

Most doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need when and where they need it.

Indiana's Republican attorney general said on Fox News Wednesday he wants to investigate that doctor, including possibly revoking her medical license for failing to report the abortion and sexual abuse.

But records show Bernard did report the abortion and abuse on July 2nd, two days after she performed the procedure and 11 days before Todd Rokita mentioned his investigation on national television.

Rokita says his investigation continues and Bernard's lawyer says the doctor is considering legal action against the AG and others she says have smeared her client.

The two major party candidates for U.S. Senate are clear in their views on abortion.

Republican J.D.

Vance is opposed to abortion rights and told NBC News last week that he doesn't think the federal government has a role in that issue.

My view on this is let the states try to figure this out for now.

Ohio has a heartbeat, bill.

I think that's a good bill.

Florida has gone a slightly different direction.

Virginia's got a slightly different direction when we're figuring this new legal regime out.

I think it makes sense right now to let the states decide this stuff.

And right now states are moving in the pro-life direction.

I think that's a good thing.

But in other interviews for other audiences, Vance has been more direct and has talked about who he calls childless Democrats and specifically childless Kat ladies having power in the U.S. and about his concerns about not having enough babies in this country.

Vance is opposed to exceptions for rape or incest.

He compared abortion to slavery because they have what he called a morally distorting effect on the entire society.

In an interview with a Catholic podcast in October and Vance recently tweeted his support for a pregnant woman claiming the right to drive in a high occupancy vehicle lane in Texas, calling the idea genius.

Tim Ryan has talked a lot more about abortion recently in line with many Democratic candidates.

He had opposed abortion rights into 2015 because of his Catholic faith.

But Ryan has been outspoken on his support, now recently appearing at a statehouse rally.

I'm pro-choice.

Yes, You got to worry about me now.

I want to get to the Senate.

I want to get to the Senate so we can get rid of the filibuster and pass the Women's Health Protection Act.

And make sure we codify Roe v Wade.

Ryan told NBC News in the same piece, mentioned earlier that the US Supreme Court decision is the largest governmental overreach in the private lives of citizens in his lifetime.

And Ryan tweeted out last week that, quote, Extremist politicians are threatening to use personal health data to punish women seeking abortion care.

And Ryan said abortion bans and efforts to stop companies from paying for abortion services for their employees are, in his words, terrible for business.

But this week, the candidates talk with my Statehouse News Bureau colleague Andy Chao about something else they're both hitting in their campaigns.

Andy.

Karen, like you said, abortion is a huge issue nationwide.

But another issue a lot of people are talking about is the economy and inflation, which hit 9.1% this week.

I talked to Tim Ryan about what he would do if he were in the Senate to address the issue.

Where do you think the country is right now?

What is your assessment of the economic situation here in America right now?

Well, I think it's brutal for a lot of working class families.

And, you know, the squeeze is real and they're feeling the pain and the anxiety of gas prices and food prices.

I think we need a tax cut immediately.

I'm very disappointed in the Biden administration.

I think there's there's one move we can make right now.

And that's to put more money in people's pockets to ride out the inflation that's happening.

You know, and part of it is the war and part of it's, you know, all of the complexities of coming out of the pandemic and price gouging and all the rest.

But that's, you know, that's all irrelevant to the average person.

We need to get money in their pockets.

And I've been calling for a tax cut for working families now for months.

And I think D.C. has got to get off the dime and pass.

We've heard a lot of people weigh in on the issue of inflation and how to actually fix it, how to bring those prices down.

When it comes to the tax cuts that you're proposing Do you think that's a way to sort of address the issue and could that bring inflation down?

Well, I think most of this just because of supply chains, the pandemic, the price gouging, think there's a lot going on here.

There's no simple reason why it's happening.

I think the answer is simple.

That's the tax cuts.

And I think that will help put more money in people's pockets.

And while we do that, you have to unlock these supply chains.

China is a train wreck now.

Because they have a zero tolerance policy.

So they're shutting down a lot of the supply chains, which was stupid.

We moved all our stuff there to begin with over the last 30 or 40 years.

We have to bring those jobs back home, create more jobs here with the supply chain.

That's the mid to long term solution.

But the short term solution is money.

In people's pockets to ride out inflation.

And the Federal Reserve, I think, you know, missed this months and months ago and then overreacted with the huge increase.

And so there are train wreck, too, and this is just a mess.

So I just say stop all the B.S.

is just put money in people's pockets.

Ride this thing out.

And then eventually the inflatio The arguments also been made that the COVID relief funds, in part from the Trump administration and also the Biden administration, that that gave more money and relief funds to businesses and in people's pockets also played a role in this.

What is your what do you say to people who argue that some of that relief money is to blame for some of this?

Well, you know, there's I know there's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here, but the economy is collapsing.

People are losing their jobs.

Businesses were going under You know, we had we had to go big and try to make sure that people were taken care of.

And I don't I'm not going to apologize for that.

And if that was part of the inflationary issue, and then you have the war and all the other things and zero tolerance in China, look, we are where we are.

Let's help people.

Tax cuts right now to working families.

So, you know, yeah, maybe that did cause a little bit of it.

Maybe that's that spurred it.

But I think now we need to move into a phase and I think we should be concerned about the debt, deficits and the debt and can't put stuff on the credit card.

So we've got to pay our bills.

I think we need some deficit reduction for sure.

To make sure that we can balance our country's books.

And I think that will help with the inflation issues, too.

So yeah, we've got a lot of work ahead of us, but it's going to I think it starts with making sure that people are secure economically and then we can deal with these other more long term issues.

You mentioned this a little bit before but the issue of the surging gas prices and how that really impacts people on a personal level, do you think that the issue of the economy inflation, gas prices, where do you see that as as a priority issue come the election?

Do you think that's what a lot of voters really are focusing on as they go to the polls in November?

It's the number one issue for me, for the people of Ohio, because I know I could be with home health care workers in Cleveland.

I can be with construction workers in Marietta or some other part of the state that have to drive for work.

It's killing them.

It's killing them.

And so that that's the big squeeze.

We are seeing wages go up, which is great.

But when when gas and food are outpacing any increase you're getting in wages, it's a squeeze for these families who have been struggling now for a long time.

So we need that tax cut immediately.

It's the number one issue for me.

I think it's the number one issue in the country And again, Washington, D.C. is broken and no one's listening to average people like us here on the ground in Ohio that understand this.

And we just got to keep hollering until we get their attention to actually get this done.

And then, unfortunately, if we could ride this out without wages going up, without the Intel project, we got a lot of manufacturing coming back to Ohio.

In Lordstown with electric trucks and cars and batteries and solar in Toledo and a lot of natural gas activity that's ready to explode.

You know, we've got opportunity here.

We just got to get this inflation under control.

And I think Ohio could be really leading the country in the world and the next generation of jobs.

You mentioned some criticism of the Biden administration, you as a Democratic nominee running for the U.S. Senate.

What's your pitch to voters?

Do you believe that you are sort of uniquely positioned to work with the Biden administration, even though you have some critiques of the administration, you're still a Democrat?

Look, I've gotten things done under Democratic presidents Republican presidents in the minority in Congress and the majority in Congress.

You've got to have somebody down there who understands how to get things done.

I've been ranked the most bipartisan member in Ohio for the last couple of cycles, the top 10% and the whole country working across the aisle.

So I don't care who I'm working with, I'll get the fights with Democrats as I have periodically over my career and work with Republicans.

It's about Ohio.

And so I agree with the Biden administration I'll support it.

Right.

Disagree.

I'll fight them in a Republican Senate that ideas.

I'll work with them to help get that passed, too.

So it's pretty simple for me.

Is it good for Ohio?

If it is I'm for it.

If it's not, I'm going to fight it.

Does the issue of high gas prices speak to a need to maybe change the way the country looks at energy resources?

And look for other ways to diversify its energy portfolio?

No question.

I think we've got to expand our natural gas production here in Ohio.

It's a hell of an opportunity to sell it to the world.

It could be great for reducing carbon and displacing coal in Europe and China, and we've got to do that.

And so also solar and Toledo electric vehicles and batteries.

We have a chance to be the arsenal of energy here in Ohio.

And that's my goal when I get to the Senate, create the jobs, export natural gas, build the products of the future, like trucks and cars and batteries and solar panels and windmills.

That should all happen right here in Ohio.

So, Andy, it's been noted that Tim Ryan has been campaigning a lot like a Republican in this race, but also a lot like the highest profile Democrat in the state of Ohio, incumbent U.S.

Senator Sherrod Brown.

And in your conversation with J.D.

Vance, he's noticed that, too.

Yeah.

Well, when you heard with Tim Ryan, he said it should be a tax cut.

And I mentioned that to J.D.

Vance, and he said that was pretty surprising.

So we talked to J.D.

Vance about what he would do about the economy and inflation, too.

How would you describe or how would you assess where the nation is right now when it comes to the economy?

And inflation?

Well, we're in a really bad place.

I think we're in a bad place primarily because we don't make enough of our own stuff here.

And so when you have global economic forces that are outside of the control of this country, it very often affects us because we haven't made the decisions to be self-sufficient.

I think the where is that a bigger problem than American energy?

So we have incredible energy reserves here in the United States.

We haven't built a refinery in 50 years.

We haven't built a new nuclear facility in 50 years.

And if you look at most of the things that are better, more expensive, the thing that's really driving it is the rise in energy costs.

Of course, we'll see it when we fill up our car at the gas tank.

But most of the things that we buy are delivered by truck, and trucks are paying $6 a gallon for diesel.

So that drives up everything.

Our farmers are paying three times as much for nitrogen fertilizer, which is heavily dependent on natural gas.

So every time that we decide to make American energy more expensive and I do blame the Biden administration for this, we actually make everything else more expensive because it all depends on energy.

What is the solution to that and what are you proposing as Ohio's next senator to sort of move the ball forward on that issue?

Well, I think we have to have a really all of the above approach to American energy, and that means developing our natural gas, which is pretty much the cleanest fuel that's available and can power a modern economy at scale.

That means manufacturing things a little bit closer to home so we don't have to rely on the Chinese, which is economically inefficient.

The Chinese also have the dirtiest economy in the world.

If you look at economic output, four per unit of carbon.

And so there's sort of a lot of reasons why we have to to bring things closer to home and become more energy independent.

But the big thing that we have to do is make it possible to invest in Ohio in American energy.

So a big part of the reason that you see prices so high right now is that we're not building American energy capacity because nobody's willing to invest in it, because they're afraid that environmental regulators or somebody in the Biden administration will shut them down.

So there was this really almost hilarious moment where I think it was it was Jennifer Granholm and the Biden administration they were asking her, well, what do you want the oil companies to do?

And she was like, well, we want them to produce more gasoline.

And they said, well, are they going to be able to produce more gasoline five, ten years down the road?

She said, Well, no, of course not.

We want to transition to a green economy.

Like you can't hold a gun to people's heads and say, we're going to shut you down in five years.

But right now we want you to do exactly what you want.

We want you to do.

And I think that that whole approach to economic thinking is why we have sky high energy prices.

So we have to reverse that and make it possible to invest in Ohio energy again.

Is there a way to do both?

Is there a way to still help create more energy generation resources, but then still move away from fossil fuels?

Or is it does it need to be more of an all of the above approach for the long term?

Well, I think the way to do both is really in all of the above approach where you invest as much energy as possibly can.

I mean, if there is a transition fuel in the world, it's Ohio natural gas, right?

Because it burns much cleaner than some of the other options.

But it's also very cheap.

It's very affordable.

It's incredibly available not just here in Ohio, but in some of the surrounding states as well.

The other thing, Andy, is we have we really have to stop the embargo on nuclear energy.

I don't know why this happened or how we got down to this rabbit hole, but it's one of the cleanest, highest quality sources of energy It's a shame that we haven't built a nuclear facility in 50 years.

And if you just look at some of our sort of pure countries, you know, Europe was shutting down their nuclear facilities under the idea that they weren't environmental enough.

And now they're opening up coal fired facilities because they can't get enough energy.

It really shows that unless you're willing to take that all of the above approach you make yourself more dependent on countries like Russia, countries like Venezuela, countries like China.

But it also just isn't environmentally sound either.

One of the big things projects down the line has been this Intel chip making plant.

Yeah.

And Intel has said that it's needing the CHIPS Act.

What are your thoughts on the what looks like to be a delay in Congress on the CHIPS Act?

Really, really bad.

Bad on a couple of different fronts.

I mean, one, this is a major national security problem.

If you think about a lot of modern defense equipment is it needs these sort of high quality chips.

God forbid, I don't want us to get in a situation ten years down the road where we're at war.

But our our military equipment doesn't work because we don't have the chips necessary to make that stuff work in the right way.

But it's also an incredible opportunity for Ohio.

I think the intel factory DeWine deserves a lot of credit for.

Rob Portman deserves a lot of credit for it.

And unfortunately, it's not going to go forward in the way that it should unless we get the CHIPS Act passed.

The other way in which it's depressing is it just so shows the complete lack of function in Washington, D.C. You have so many people who are incredible at grandstanding.

They're incredible at getting out there and making broad proclamations.

But when it comes down to the nitty gritty work of actually getting legislation passed out our our leadership has completely failed us.

I certainly blame Tim Ryan for this.

I mean, his party controls the Senate.

They control the House.

They control the presidency.

You would think that he'd be able to exert some influence over his own administration in order to get this thing across the finish line.

But frankly, it doesn't reflect well on Republican leadership either.

Both parties deserve some blame for the fact that this thing is stalled.

Speaking of Tim Ryan, your opponent in this U.S. Senate race, when I talk to him about the issue of inflation, he really emphasized the need for a big tax cut and something that he would want to pass in Congress is a tax cut.

What are your thoughts on that being part of the solution to inflation?

Yeah, so so what I mean, Tim Robbins never defended a tax cut his entire life.

And I find it interesting is now running for Senate.

He's now the biggest the biggest tax cutter in the world when it when it comes to a political race, but not what it actually comes to legislation.

And look, tax cuts are a good idea.

I mean, I've been a big advocate of payroll tax cuts because a lot of what working families are struggling with, it's it's it's it's the payroll taxes that they're paying the deductions for for Medicare and Social Security and so forth.

So I think it's a great idea to give working families some tax relief.

But let's be honest with ourselves.

If you give, let's say, the average Ohio family an extra thousand dollars a year because of a tax cut, that's great.

But if they're paying an extra $3,000 a year because of the inflation problem, they're not better off.

And so you have to solve the underlying economic fundamentals.

You've got to get more stuff made in America.

You've got to stop spending money that we don't have.

And you've got to unleash American energy.

If you don't do that stuff, a tax cut, it's going to be like a Band-Aid on a very gaping wound.

There are so many issues out there right now, so many issues that are becoming political talking points when it comes to the issue of the economy and inflation.

Where do you think that rings in voters minds?

As far as priority?

In my perspective, it is the number one issue.

I mean, people feel very clearly like they can't afford the things that they need to live a good life.

I mean, a lot of people, you know, talked to a guy yesterday who's not going to go visit his brother as he does every summer.

His brother lives in Georgia because, you know, we just can't afford it this year.

And I think that things both big and small family vacations getting canceled, you know, people downsizing their food budgets for the summer.

It's just really sad because this is the richest country in the world and we should be able to deliver a good life to our people.

I think people are really feeling it, you know, any like something that I would point out in it, just having come from from a working class family feels very, very acute.

As you know, when when we were struggling financially like one of the things that we would do is you wouldn't buy hotdog buns anymore.

You would just buy white bread to eat your hotdogs with.

And I've heard a couple of families say we don't even buy handguns anymore.

Or we just go with the white bread.

And that's that's not right.

You know, especially around Fourth of July, like people should be able to celebrate and afford a hot dog.

But this is not a luxury item here.

This is something that we should expect American families to be able to afford.

And unfortunately, I got to say, I think Tim Ryan I think Joe Biden have failed to deliver that prosperity that this country and the state deserves.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at State News Dot org and follow us on the show on Facebook and Twitter.

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