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Tag: Roe v. Wade

  • Abortion ‘trigger bill’ coming to Senate committee

    Abortion ‘trigger bill’ coming to Senate committee

    BY: and Ohio Capital Journal

    A piece of legislation meant to go into effect if federal abortion rights protections are overturned will start its path through the Ohio legislature this week.

    Senate Bill 123 is set to appear in the Ohio Senate Health Committee on Wednesday morning.

    If passed, the bill would then await court challenges of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. If challenges to Roe were successful, Ohio could then quickly ban abortion.

    There is an exception in the bill for abortions when there is serious risk to the pregnant person’s life, but written certification of the necessity is required, and “appropriate neonatal services for premature infants must exist at the facility where the physician performs or induces the abortion.”

    Currently, abortion is legal in the state of Ohio up to 22 weeks gestation.

    The proposed legislation would also ban “as the crime of promoting abortion” possessing, selling or advertising “drugs, medicine, instrument or device to cause an abortion”

    “Promoting abortion” is one of a few crimes defined under the bill, and would be a first-degree misdemeanor if passed. “Abortion manslaughter” would be a crime under the bill, treated as a first-degree felony punishable with a minimum of four to seven years in prison for “purposely taking the life of a child born by attempted abortion who is alive when removed from the…uterus.”

    As with other attempted legislation on abortion in the state, the punishment primarily lands on the physicians, leaving those having the abortions legally cleared and even able to file a wrongful death lawsuit if an abortion is performed in violation of the proposed legislation.

    A physician could have their license revoked if found guilty of “abortion manslaughter,” “criminal abortion,” or “promoting abortion.”

    The language regarding “abortion manslaughter” is reminiscent of language in a different abortion-related bill seeking to punish doctors after “botched abortions.” That bill seeks to prohibit inaction by doctors in the case of “failed” abortions, however, state data shows failed abortions are very rare.

    Of abortions reported at 19 weeks or more gestation in the state’s most recent data — which was available at the time the botched abortion bill was presented — only one pregnancy was found to be viable.

    The Senate legislation isn’t the first “trigger ban” that has been introduced in the General Assembly in the recent past. Last spring, a House bill was introduced by former state Rep. John Becker, also aiming to take effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

    Abortion-rights advocates are planning to rally together at the Ohio Statehouse at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the day before the committee meets to consider the trigger ban.

    “With the stark reality that Ohio could be the next state where abortion is entirely inaccessible, now is the time to show up and fight for our communities,” said Aileen Day, communications for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, in a statement.

    Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.

  • Ohio abortion ban with felony charges back in the works, targeting Roe v. Wade

    Ohio abortion ban with felony charges back in the works, targeting Roe v. Wade

    By Susan Tebben and Ohio Capital Journal

    The battle on abortion in Ohio will only be stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court or a change in the U.S. Constitution, according to reproductive law experts and those once again pushing for abortion bans.

    Two state legislators have introduced a bill making abortion procedures a felony, which marks the second time in as many years that a bill was introduced hoping for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the national Supreme Court decision that said abortion was legal nationwide.

    A physician accused of “causing or inducing an abortion” would face an official charge of “criminal abortion,” which would be a fourth-degree felony under the new Senate Bill, introduced recently in the Ohio Senate.

    If signed into law, the bill would not take into effect until either the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 decision in Roe. V. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, or an amendment to the U.S. Constitution “upholds Ohio’s authority under the federal system to prohibit abortion,” according to a statement from bill cosponsor state Sen. Kristina Roegner’s office.

    “I believe that when the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to Roe, they will realize that the original decision from 1973 was seriously flawed, and return the authority regarding abortion to the states,” Roegner said in the statement.

    Nearly a year ago to the day, former state Rep. John Becker introduced similar legislation, which would have barred state funds from being disbursed for abortion-related services and created a first-degree felony charge of “abortion manslaughter.”

    Becker’s bill never received a hearing, and therefore never moved in the 133rdGeneral Assembly. Currently, abortions are legal in Ohio up to 22 weeks gestation.

    Both bills have an exception in the event that “the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman,” according to language in the current bill.

    Ohio is one of a few states trying to pass anti-abortion laws and create a review of Roe v. Wade.

    The abortion fight in the state has been going on since Roe v. Wade was decided, but a law professor who also works on abortion challenges says the last few years have been more active than most.

    “I think there’s almost nothing that’s beyond the pale right now,” said Professor Jessie Hill of Case Western Reserve University.

    Hill is also cooperating attorney for the ACLU, which has five lawsuits against state abortion measures going on simultaneously, including one filed this weekchallenging a law on burial and cremation after surgical abortions. Since Hill returned to Ohio in 2001, she’s only seen efforts to regulate abortion ramp up year after year.

    “All of a sudden these bills started passing, and in the last few years they’ve been more and more extreme,” Hill said, adding that gerrymandering creating a Republican-leaning legislature contributed to the increase in anti-abortion legislation.

    Anti-abortion groups are lining up to support the bill, with lobby group Ohio Right to Life calling the legislation “powerful and life-affirming.”

    “For the first time since abortion was legalized, we have a pro-life majority on the (U.S.) Supreme Court,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “Roe v. Wade hangs by a thread. Ohio must be prepared for what comes next.”

    Planned Parenthood’s Ohio chapter said the newest bill restricts access to care rather than making lives better.

    “S.B. 123 is the latest egregious attack on abortion access from leaders in the Ohio General Assembly who are only focused on eliminating legal access to abortion, to the neglect of everything else – including the pandemic.”

    Hill sees a constitutional amendment as a long shot, with a requirement of support from 75% of states in order to make that happen.

    Targeting a U.S. Supreme Court decision is a bigger possibility, and even if the high court decides not to overturn the decision as a whole, Hill says cutting back the protections included in Roe v. Wade is something not often considered as the debate continues.

    “I think it’s an under-appreciated possibility that the court is not really interested in overturning Roe v. Wade, but that they would reduce it to almost nothing,” Hill said.

    The new Ohio bill will now be assigned to a House committee for hearings and consideration.