Porter's efforts supporting the passing of fetal heartbeat bills in American state legislatures has led to her being described as "in many ways the godmother of the heartbeat movement." Prior to founding Faith2Action in 2003, she was the legislative director for Ohio Right to Life for 1988 to 1997. At Ohio Right to Life, she helped lobby for the first partial-birth abortion ban in the United States, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart. She then served as the national director of the Center for Reclaiming America from September 1997 to 2002. She has said that she joined the Center because she wanted to focus on more issues than just abortion. At the Center, she led a campaign promoting the idea that homosexuality is an individual choice. The original Ohio "Heartbeat Bill" was authored by Porter, who launched the first version of it in Ohio in 2011, and advocated for its passing; former Governor John Kasich then vetoed it twice, prior to its passing in 2019. In 2011, she played "testimony" from a fetus in legislative hearings on the bill, by projecting an ultrasound image onto a screen and showing it to legislators. Introduced in 11 states, and passed by legislatures in four more, Porter’s bill is supported by conservatives seeking to mount a challenge to Roe v Wade.
Porter previously hosted a radio show, also called Faith2Action, before it was cancelled in 2010. VCY America, the show's parent company, said it cancelled the show because Porter had expressed views too similar to dominion theology. The following week, she posted a blog post denying that she supported dominion theology.
Political candidacy
In 2016, Porter ran unsuccessfully against Larry Obhof in the Republican primary for the Ohio Senate's 22nd district. During her candidacy, she criticized Republican opponents for not supporting her heartbeat abortion bills. Her campaign for Obhof's senate seat was supported by Mike Huckabee. In a February 2016 video, Huckabee announced that he was supporting Porter because she would fight "for faith, family and for freedom."
Author
Porter is the author of several books published by Random House, including True to Life and The Criminalization of Christianity. She has authored a column for WorldNetDaily since 2007, in which she has promoted conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, including that he is not a U.S. citizen.