Ohio's Abortion Ban Is New — But The Fight Leading Up To It Is Not

By DeMicia Inman


You needn't look far to know that, In the United States, peoples's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy are under siege.


Almost weekly, conservative lawmakers are proposing expenses and laws that would severely allowance, and in several ways end people's reproductive rights and freedoms. In Texas, Republican state Rep. Tony Tinderholt introduced the Abolition of Abortion Act, which proposes abortion be punishable by death. Conservative lawmakers in the state of Georgia hope Governor Brian Kemp will sign the Fetal Heartbeat bill on May 12, which would prohibit abortion right after doctors detect a fetal heartbeat with exceptions for rape and incest cases announced to police, or to save the life and protect the health of the mother.


A fetal heartbeat is detected usually five to six weeks into the gestational period. The American Pregnancy Association notes most females become aware of pregnancy at four to seven weeks. This leaves slim margins for anyone seeking an abortion procedure as a pregnancy is confirmed.


According to reports published by Offered Parenthood, the United States has already saw a 63 percent increase from 2018 to 2019 in charges that would ban abortion before several people know they are pregnant. The same statistics acknowledges that lawmakers in seven states — Colorado, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington — have suggested total bans on abortion, while Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, and Texas are currently fielding “trigger” bans, laws that would take effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court. In total, lawmakers have filed 250 expenses restricting abortion across state legislatures in 2019 so far.


This direct pushback against the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case, which ruled in favor of access to safe and legal abortion as a constitutional right, did not appear overnight. Case in point, states have spent years laying the groundwork to enact legislature designed to undermine that essential decision.


On April 11, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed the so-called Heartbeat Bill, right now referred to because the Human Rights Protection Act, which aims to ban abortion right after a fetal heartbeat is detected with only the exception of a life-saving procedure for the pregnant person. The bill is poised to take effect in the second 90 days.


“Women should have the correct to pick what occurs to their bodies,” Tearra, a 25-year-old resident of Columbus, Ohio, tells MTV News. “To take that away should be against human rights. You need to have the correct to do whichever you aspire to your body without worrying about breaking a law.” Tearra did not vote for Governor DeWine and added that she feels the state government’s aim at criminalizing abortions signals a lack of prioritization for the health of females overall.


With confirmation of the Human Rights Protection Act, Ohio lawmakers’ dreams of banning abortion outright will essentially come true. However the don't think about for the health and wellness of ladies in Ohio can be traced by a history of explicitly designed laws and policies from conservative Ohio lawmakers starting in 1974, as soon as Ohio  passed codes allowing hospitals or doctors to decline to perform the procedure for any or no reason. By 1998, the state required minors to obtain parental consent prior to deriving an abortion, and ladies with state-obtained health insurance were no longer able to use their policies to cover abortion except in cases of medical emergency. In 2007, Ohio declared that no state or local funds would be used to facilitate abortion except in cases of rape or incest announced to police or medical emergency.


Under former Governor John Kasich’s gubernatorial reign especially, a new set of traps arrived for people seeking a legal and safe abortion. Kasich was elected in 2011. His agenda included prohibiting public hospitals from offering abortion, requiring that healthcare providers give pregnant people mandatory ultrasounds even if they were not medically required, forcing ladies to be presented with the alternative to view the fetus or listen for a heartbeat, and barring agencies deriving funds from rape crisis programs from referring victims to abortion facilities. Doctors who performed abortions right after a heartbeat can be detected would face fines and possible prison time.


These provisions were the Heartbeat Bill in its earliest form. First introduced in 2011, it did not pass, nevertheless has since been upgraded with the changes to be the Human Rights Protection Act, or Senate Bill 23 we know today. While doing so, it was vetoed twice by Kasich on the grounds that the bill would launch a costworthy and unsuccessful court battle, although was approved by the Ohio Senate 18-13 and the Ohio Residence passed it 56-40. Governor DeWine’s signing of the Human Rights Protection Act affirms campaign promises he made while seeking votes.


Once MTV News reached out to Governor DeWine’s office for comment, a spokesperson directed us  to archives on the website for the governor’s position on the newly-signed law.


For Ohio, this demonstrates the more than 3 million people, several of these women, of average childbearing age who call the Buckeye State residence face strict laws, unrealistic time constraints, and practically zero options in back of carrying the pregnancy to term, or seeking abortion elsewhere.


The Heartbeat Bill wasn’t the only mark the Kasich administration left on the state’s reproductive rights legacy: In 2016, the then-governor  signed a bill aiming to defund Proposed Parenthood by stripping the company of monies allocated for non-abortion services (reproductive healthcare providers like Recommended Parenthood have routinely been blocked from using federal funds towards abortion services, per Title X provisions). Soon after numerous blocks and appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit determined in March 2019 that the state has rights to block the financial range, cutting off required funding to health clinics in a direct attack to some of Ohio’s most weak populations. Proposed Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region reports repair over 20,000 patients in their clinic in 2016. Of those patients, resident nurses and doctors administered over 42,000 STI tests and treatment, more than 4,000 HIV tests, over 3,000 breast exams and over 2,000 women’s wellness physicals; 42 percent of those patients identify as a minority by racial qualifiers.


Five Thirty Eight reports that in 2011, there were 16 surgical abortion providers in Ohio; by 2015, that number had dropped to eight abortion providers. No state, other than Texas, lost so several clinics in such a short timespan. Right now in 2019, online databases list seven clinics statewide that offer abortion services, and the one remaining medical clinic performing abortions in Kettering Ohio, a suburb of  Dayton, Ohio, faces closure right after a Ohio appellate court revoked the clinic’s abortion license based on the lack of written transfer agreements from local hospitals, the Dayton Day-to-day News reports. The clinic plans to appeal the decision in court, WOSU notes, and MTV News has reached out to the Women’s Med Clinic for comment.


If the center is closed, those in need lose access to not only abortion although also pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and other vital reproductive health procedures. Ladies in this area could be forced to travel over a hour for the nearest site. A 20-year-old woman attending the University of Dayton in need of abortion services must potentially take at least the following steps:

• Confirm pregnancy before a fetal heartbeat can be detected, a next to impossible task.




• Have or obtain funds for travel and lodging in Cincinnati, the nearest city where a health facility allocating abortion exists.




• Undergo counseling plus a mandatory ultrasound, which she could be forced view and keep a physical copy of.




• Wait at least 24 hours, some days longer, for an appointment for the particular procedure, requiring at least two trips to the facility.




• Have adequate insurance or other funding for abortion procedure.

This generic list does not account for any factors leading to a woman’s choice to terminate her pregnancy. While the purpose of an abortion should not matter, the internal battle and personalized circumstances often add to the weight of unnecessary political red tape.


Minors have it even harder. A 17-year-old seeking an abortion must also have at least one parent or legal guardian present. These procedures symbolize a clear don't think about of women’s ownership to their bodies and the correct to prepare decisions on their own behalfs.


According to Carolyn Casper, the President of National Company for Females Ohio, or Ohio NOW, the Human Rights Protection Act should serve as a wakeup call to the whole nation — even in states where legislature seems much less likely to take hold.


“It’s frightening because it’s spreading nationally,” she told MTV News.


Casper says the solution will come as soon as females are the people creating the laws and regulations. “We can yell and scream and stand outdoors all we want nevertheless, we need to be at the table, not on the menu,” she mentioned, pointing to the election of 125 females in both the U.S. Senate and Home of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections as an encouraging begin. Still, though females make up more than half of our country’s population, they are not however represented politically with the same numbers.


The current battle in Ohio exists because of decades’ worth of attempts to move the needle towards outlawing abortion, actions the whole nation can expect under our current political leadership. Anti-abortion advocates have seemingly become emboldened by current President Donald Trump, and noticed allyship in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, giving conservatives an edge in key Supreme Court decisions. As a result, the overturning of Roe v. Wade could happen sooner than later. Nevertheless, local efforts are leading the way for regional and country-wide change.


“Without exceptions for cases of rape and incest and with complete don't think about of the protections for the life and health of the woman, this ban will have profound negative impacts on females in Columbus, [Ohio],” City Council Member Elizabeth Brown mentioned at a recent meeting.


The Ohio ACLU is also taking legal action against the state of Ohio, arguing that a ban of abortion at six weeks, or with the detection of a fetal heartbeat, directly violates constitutional rights and totally undermines the precedent set by Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit names Preterm Cleveland, a northern Ohio clinic, because the plaintiff. Added plaintiffs will include Suggested Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Proposed Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, and Dayton’s Women’s Med Center.


“This legislation is blatantly unconstitutional and we plan to fight to the bitter end to make sure that this bill is permanently blocked,” Freda Levenson, legal director at the Ohio ACLU, mentioned in a press release. “SB 23 is one of the most aggressive, oppressive, and radical attacks against ladies ever seen in this state and this nation. A nearly identical bill in Kentucky was just struck down by a federal judge – we feel confident our impending litigation will ultimately prevail.”