Columbus, OH (LifeNews.com) -- The Ohio legislature sent Gov. Ted Strickland a biotech bill that doesn't contain a ban on human cloning the way pro-life advocates wanted. The measure has only a more modest ban on forcing taxpayers to fund human cloning but Strickland won't allow that protection for state residents.

Instead, Strickland used his line-item veto Thursday to axe the section of the $1.3 billion funding bill banning state funds for cloning human beings.

At the end of May, the Ohio Senate voted 21-11 to ban the use of funds from the state's Biomedical Development Program for any activities involving human cloning.

Sen. Steve Buehrer, a Republican, offered the amendment to HB 554, an economic stimulus bill that would fund grants, loans and loan guarantees for biotech research and medical products from it.

Mike Gonidakis, the director of Ohio Right to Life, told LifeNews.com, “By vetoing a ban on using taxpayer funds for human cloning, Ted Strickland has demonstrated that he supports treating human life as a commodity."

"Most Ohioans don’t share Governor Strickland’s cavalier disregard for the value of human life and they should not be forced to pay for its creation, exploitation and destruction in cloning research,” Gonidakis said.

The amendment ensures new money generated from new jobs under the bill will not be used for research and experimentation that creates and destroy human life.

The funding ban only applies to the economic stimulus bill and only for new money generated from it.

Ohio Right to Life had supported the cloning funding ban and was concerned the bill was on a fast track in the Ohio General Assembly and that it could ultimately lead to taxpayers funding either reproductive or research-based human cloning.

ORTL president Tracie Johnson said her group was concerned that HB 554 would become an "open invitation: to use tax dollars to fund the creation and destruction of human life."

"While Ohio's biotech industry obviously views ethical restrictions on their research as an unnecessary inconvenience, millions of Ohio taxpayers do not share their cavalier disregard for human life," she added. "Those taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the creation and destruction of human life through cloning."

ACTION: Use the form at http://governor.ohio.gov/Assistance/ContacttheGovernor/tabid/448/Default.aspx to contact Governor Strickland and tell him you oppose his decision to remove the ban on taxpayer funding of human cloning from the biotech bill.

Related web sites:
Ohio Governor - http://governor.ohio.gov
Ohio Legislature - http://www.legislature.state.oh.us
Ohio Senate - http://www.senate.state.oh.us
Ohio Right to Life - http://www.ohiolife.org