Abortion in Ohio
[4] Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are advocating in court to have other pre-amendment restrictions nullified, such as a 24-hour waiting period, laws prohibiting advanced practice nurses and similar healthcare providers from prescribing abortion medications, and a law prohibiting the prescription of mifepristone (which is commonly used for medication abortion) for any off-label use.
This section overrides penalties for pregnant women who undertake an abortion after embryonic cardiac activity had been detected.
[10] This release of penalties did not extend to physicians or doctors who administered the abortion past detectable cardiac activity.
[13] The decision meant abortions through 22 weeks gestation could continue, in keeping with state law in place before the ban.
[14] In 2017, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi had among the highest rates of infant mortality in the United States.
Her case drew national attention and commentary from public figures, due in part to its proximity to the June 24, 2022, decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states, including Ohio, to impose unlimited limitations on abortion access.
Six states — Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — accounted for most cases.
[20] In September 2023, 34 year old Brittany Watts of Warren, Ohio was arrested after having a miscarriage at home and was charged with "abusing a corpse".
[24] Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota and Ohio all had statutes in 2007 that required specific informed consent on abortion but also, by statute, allowed medical doctors performing abortions to disassociate themselves with the anti-abortion materials they were required to provide to their female patients.
[31] A related law was signed in Ohio in 2013 by Governor John Kasich, which mandates, among other things, that doctors who do not test for embryonic cardiac activity when a patient seeks an abortion, tell the patient in writing if there is embryonic cardiac activity, and then tell them the statistical likelihood that the fetus could be carried to term, are subject to criminal penalties; specifically, "The doctor's failure to do so would be a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to six months in jail, for the first violation and a fourth-degree felony, carrying up to 18 months in jail, for subsequent violations.
[34] In 2013, Ohio passed a Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) bill containing provisions related to admitting privileges and licensing and requiring clinics to have a transfer agreement with a hospital.
[36] The Guardian reported that "The bill is unlikely to go any further, facing stiff opposition in the senate as well as from John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio.
[38][39] The bill as passed would make abortion after the detection of embryonic cardiac activity a fifth-degree felony except in cases where a physician judges the abortion necessary "to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.
[26] In early 2018, the House considered a bill passed by the Senate to ban abortion after 13 weeks and require that fetal remains be cremated or buried.
[26] Nationally, 2019 was one of the most active years for state legislatures in terms of trying to pass abortion rights restrictions.
State governments with Republican majorities started to push these bills after Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a US Supreme Court judge, replacing the more liberal Anthony Kennedy.
These state governments generally saw this as a positive sign that new moves to restrict abortion rights would be less likely to face resistance in the courts.
[54] The law, slated to go into effect in July 2019, would make abortion illegal after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, usually between five or six weeks into the pregnancy.
[56] This injunction does not, however, prevent County Prosecutors outside Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Franklin, Richland, Mahoning, Montgomery, and Lucas Counties from enforcing the criminal prohibition on post-embryonic cardiac activity abortions, nor does it prevent them from prosecuting individuals or organizations that aid or abet abortions after embryonic cardiac activity, which remains a criminal offense under Ohio law.
[57][58] In November 2019, a bill was introduced by Candice Keller and Ron Hood, House Bill 413, which would if made into law ban abortion outright and require doctors to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy, a medical procedure that obstetricians and gynecologists contend is currently impossible.
The intent of this initiative, according to its creator, Republican State Representative Brian Stewart, was to "[stop] a whole host of [referendum] issues that we know are coming down the pike" including redistricting, minimum wages, qualified immunity, and, most notably, abortion rights.
[64] November 2023 Ohio Issue 1 was a statewide referendum on whether to amend the state constitution to include a right to abortion and other reproductive healthcare.
[66] Issue 1 was written to undo a 2019 trigger law, which was triggered by Dobbs, banning all abortion after six weeks — a so-called heartbeat law — with no exceptions for rape or incest; it included language that allowed Ohioans to "make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions" to the point of viability.
[71] In 1913 in the case of State v. Tipple, the Ohio Supreme Court said, "The reason and policy of the statute are to protect women and unborn babes from dangerous criminal practice, and to discourage secret immorality between the sexes, and a vicious and craven custom amongst married pairs who wish to evade the responsibilities of rearing offspring.
[53] A #StoptheBans protest in Cincinnati saw dozens of people participating outside the Hamilton County Courthouse where they chanted "Right to life, that's a lie, you don't care if women die".
[91] Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, hundreds of abortion rights protesters gathered at the Ohio State Capitol in Columbus.
[96] On July 10, a group of abortion rights protesters in Cleveland camped out in front of City Hall for a week.
[100] On March 7, 2016, Rachel Ann Jackson, 71, vandalized a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbus, Ohio, with the message "SATAN DEN OF BABY KILLERS..." She pleaded guilty to felony counts of breaking and entering and vandalism and a misdemeanor count of aggravated trespass.
