The APPLE Act Is Rotten to the Core:A Biblical Analysis of Ohio's SB309
On October 28th, 2025, SB309, the APPLE Act (Abortion Pill Provider Liability Education Act) was introduced into the Ohio Senate. SB 309 would require a woman prescribed mifepristone be notified, in writing, about the risk of complications associated with taking the drug and about her right to sue in specific cases. The bill's sponsor, Senator Kyle Koehler, would have you believe SB309 is a pro-life victory. Ohio Right to Life and the Center for Christian Virtue have offered their endorsement. But a careful reading of the bill's actual language reveals something far more troubling: a piece of legislation that not only fails to protect the innocent but actively institutionalizes the shedding of their blood under a veneer of compassion.Scripture does not allow us to speak with muted voices here. "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?" (Proverbs 24:11–12). Ohio's legislature has been weighed, and SB309 is found guilty of immorality. The current text of the bill mandates that:
1). “[T]he health care provider or the health care provider's agent provides the pregnant woman with written instructions and information on the abortion-inducing drug.”
Analysis:
The State of Ohio, under SB309, would be legally required to ensure that abortionists hand women step-by-step instructions for chemically ending the lives of their children. This is administrative facilitation of evil. The state does not merely look away; it becomes a participant, putting its stamp of approval on the killing.
God's word is unambiguous about the role civil government is meant to play. Paul writes in Romans 13:4 that the governing authority is "God's servant for your good…an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." The state exists to punish evil, not to counsel citizens through its commission. SB309 inverts the divine mandate entirely, transforming the government from a minister of justice into an accomplice to bloodshed.
2). The information which would be required under this legislation to be put on mifepristone begins with, “If you decide to take an abortion-inducing drug to end your pregnancy the state of Ohio wants you to be aware…”
Analysis:
As Paul tells us in Galatians 3:24, the law is a tutor. When the law speaks, society listens and learns. When Ohio's law describes the killing of a child as merely "ending a pregnancy," it actively trains citizens to accept the slaughter of image-bearers as a morally neutral medical event.
This is the precise pattern Isaiah condemned in ancient Israel: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness" (Isaiah 5:20). The euphemism is ideological. And a state that uses it has made a moral choice; the choice to cloak an abomination in sanitized language rather than name it with honesty. Notice too that in SB309, the state is perfectly content with the shedding of innocent blood. The bill simply seeks to alert the perpetrator to the risks of the act and to point out the potential monetary gain they could obtain if the situation takes an unexpected turn. SB309 compels the State of Ohio to abandon its rightful role as God’s servant of justice.
3). “If you decide to take an abortion-inducing drug to end your pregnancy, the state of Ohio wants you to be aware that you and your family may hold the manufacturer, distributor, your health care provider, and the health care facility financially accountable…if the medication fails to terminate the pregnancy which results in a failed abortion or requires surgical intervention.”
Analysis:
Pause here and absorb what this means. The law creates a legal cause of action, a lawsuit . when the child survives the abortion. The drug's failure to kill is the triggering condition for litigation. The child's death, therefore, is the legally preferred and financially protected outcome. The murder succeeds, and no one is liable. The murder fails, and the woman has legal recourse.
This is not a “pro-life” provision. It is an incentive structure that places the full weight of Ohio law on the side of more efficient killing. Drug manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, facing the prospect of lawsuits for failed abortions, will be economically motivated to produce more potent, more lethal drugs. The logic is inescapable: deadlier drugs equal fewer lawsuits.
Proverbs 17:15 declares: "Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent — the Lord detests them both." And SB309 does not merely “acquit the guilty”; it rewards successful killing while penalizing failure. Clearly, the murder of the child is now portrayed as the hopeful and positive outcome in this scenario! But God's detestable things do not become acceptable when dressed in legislative language.
Conclusion:
In his own sponsor testimony for SB309, Senator Koehler stated, “[T]his legislation does not impede or hinder a women’s ability to access a chemical abortion, but it ensures that she is fully educated on the risks associated with these drugs and her and her family’s right to seek recourse should complications arise.”
Senator Kyle Koehler had a meeting with End Abortion Ohio and a pastor from Xenia prior to filing the bill in 2025. In this meeting, Senator Koehler was presented with the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act and chose not to sponsor it. Senator Koehler has been educated about equal protection, and yet he still decided to file a pro-life bill that is riddled with moral corruption.
SB309 belongs to a long tradition of pro-life legislation that treats abortion as a problem to be managed rather than an evil to be abolished. It legally regulates the acceptable methods of killing and educates the killers on how to avoid further financial loss. It is, in the words of the prophets, precisely the kind of false peace that leads a nation deeper into judgment: "They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14).Contact Senator Koehler's office and call him to account. Ask him to rescind SB309 and replace it with the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act to provide equal protection to our suffering preborn neighbors. The blood of the innocent cries out from the ground (Genesis 4:10). Ohio does not need better instructions for shedding innocent blood. Ohio needs a legislature with the courage to make the bleeding stop.
