Abortion In Ohio

Abortion in Ohio is legal.

The number of abortion clinics in Ohio has declined over the years, with 55 in 1982, 45 in 1992 and 12 in 2014. There were 21,186 legal abortions in 2014 and 20,976 in 2015.

Terminology

The abortion debate most commonly relates to the induced abortion of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.

Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".

Context

Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link.  At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening.

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a woman's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health.  These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools. According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states with legislation that protects a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States. In 2017, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi had among the highest rates of infant mortality in the United States. In 2017, Ohio had an infant mortality rate of 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.

History

Legislative history

Dates of when heartbeat laws come into effect (as of May 25, 2019)

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the Union except Louisiana had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions. In 1978, Akron, Ohio passed a city ordinance that restricted abortion rights.

The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement. 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. The Ohio legislature was one of five states nationwide that tried, and failed, to pass a fetal heartbeat bill in 2013.  Only North Dakota successfully passed such a law, but it was later struck down by the courts. They tried with this type of legislation again unsuccessfully in 2018.

Among those who believe that abortion is murder, some believe it may be appropriate to punish it with death. While attempts to criminalize abortion generally focus on the doctor, Texas state Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R) introduced a bill in 2017 and 2019 that may enable the death penalty in Texas for women who have abortions, and the Ohio legislature considered a similar bill in 2018.

In Ohio, a fetal heartbeat law, HB 125, was introduced in the state legislature in October 2011. It was the only state in the country to try to pass such legislation that year. The bill was shelved by the Republican majority Senate to avoid controversy. This bill was notably supported by John C. Willke. A related law was signed in Ohio in 2013 by John Kasich, which mandates, among other things, that doctors who do not test for a fetal heartbeat must be 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." A bill similar to the 2011–2012 bill was introduced in 2013, titled HB 248. A further fetal heartbeat law was introduced on August 14, 2013, by Lynn Wachtmann and others. 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. Fetal heartbeat bills appeared again in the state legislature in 2014. On March 25, 2015, another heartbeat bill (House Bill 69) passed the Ohio House of Representatives. 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." On December 6, 2016, the Ohio Senate added a heartbeat ban provision to an unrelated bill, House Bill 493, previously passed by the Ohio House of Representatives. The bill was returned to the House and passed by the House the same day. The bill as passed would make abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat 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." On December 13, 2016, Kasich vetoed the bill. Attempts to pass a fetal heartbeat law continued in 2016, with Ohio being was one of eight states nationwide that tried and failed to pass such legislation.

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. In 2018, the state was one of eleven where the legislature introduced a bill that failed to pass that would have banned abortion in almost all cases.

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 M. Kavanaugh was confirmed as a US Supreme Court judge, replacing the more liberal Anthony M. Kennedy.  These state governments generally saw this as a positive sign that new moves to restrict abortion rights would be less likely face resistance in the courts. Two fetal heartbeat bills were introduced in the Ohio General Assembly in 2019, marking the 133rd Session of the Ohio General Assembly as the fifth time such legislation has been proposed in the state. On February 11, 2019, Christina Hagan and Ron Hood filed HB 68, which was introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives on February 12, 2019. On February 12, 2019, Kristina Roegner filed SB 23 in the Ohio Senate; the bill was referred to the Health, Human Services and Medicaid Committee on February 13, 2019. On February 21, 2019, the President of the Ohio Senate, Larry Obhof pledged to pass SB 23 out of the upper chamber stating, “We are going to pass that bill by the middle of March. I have no doubt at all.” On March 13, 2019, SB 23 was passed out of the Ohio Senate by a vote of 19 to 13. The next month, the Ohio House amended the bill, and passed it, 56-40; the changes were ratified in the Senate, 18–13. The bill was signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine on April 11, 2019. At the time the bill passed, only 27% of the state legislators were female. The law, slated to go into effect in July 2019, would make abortion illegal after the fetus's heartbeat can be detected, usually between five or six weeks into the pregnancy. No exceptions for cases of rape or incest are made.

In July 2019 a federal judge blocked the Ohio heartbeat law.

In November 2019, a bill introduced by Candice Keller and Ron Hood, House Bill 413, bans abortion outright and requires doctors to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy, a medical procedure that obstetricians and gynecologists contend is currently impossible.

Judicial history

In 1913 in the case of State v. Tipple, the Ohio Supreme Court said, "The reason and policy of the statue is 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." The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.

Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health in 1983 refused to allow the state to require women seeking abortions during the second trimester to be hospitalized or  that a woman be required to listen to a "parade of horribles" before being allowed to have an abortion. The full law that was struck down also required women to wait 24 hours after seeking an abortion, parental consent for minors and that a fetus that is aborted be dealt with in a "human" manner.

Clinic history

Number of abortion clinics in Ohio by year.

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by ten, going from 55 in 1982 to 45 in 1992. In 2014, there were twelve abortion clinics in the state. In 2014, 93% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 56% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. In March 2016, there were 28 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. In 2017, there were 27 Planned Parenthood clinics serving a population of 2,585,171 women aged 15 – 49. 3 of the Planned Parenthood clinics offered abortion services.

Statistics

In the period between 1972 and 1974, the state had an illegal abortion mortality rate per million women aged 15 – 44 of between 0.1 and 0.9. In 1990, 1,314,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2010, the state had 9 publicly funded abortions, of which were 9 federally funded and 0 were state funded. In 2014, 48% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Abortion rights views and activities

Protests

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019. In May 2019, women participated in a heartbeat ban bill protest in Cleveland  as part of #StoptheBans movement. It was organized by NARAL Pro Choice Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and Cleveland State University students. 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".

Opposition to abortion

Truth Truck at Ohio State University in 2008.

Political signage on I-70 in Columbus in August 2018.

Violence

The first clinic arson occurred in Oregon in March 1976 and the first bombing occurred in February 1978 in Ohio. In 1978, there were 3 arson attacks and 4 bomb attacks on abortion facilities in the United States.  All but two of these took place in Ohio.  These 7 attacks caused combined damage of US$800,000.

In 1977, there were four arson attacks on abortion clinics.  These took place in Minnesota, Vermont, Nebraska and Ohio.  Combined, they caused over US$1.1 million in damage. By 2000, an act of violence had taken place at an abortion clinic in Shelby County, Ohio. 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. Jackson was sentenced to probation, with the judge citing her struggle with serious mental illness as a mitigating factor.

Footnotes