Democrats in Ohio say they’ll need a new recipe for a second huge abortion rights win

Advocates were surprised by the results of a vote that could have made it harder to protect access to abortion — but they're not letting that make them overconfident.

Sept. 16, 2023
By Megan Lebowitz

BURTON, OHIO — Abortion rights activists shocked themselves and the Ohio political world when they resoundingly defeated an August proposal that would have made it more difficult to enshrine abortion protections in the state’s constitution.

The next test comes on Nov. 7, when voters will decide whether to adopt a constitutional amendment to preserve access to abortion in a state that has veered increasingly to the right since 2016.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrats-ohio-abortion-second-win-rcna103897


How Republicans are trying to block voters from having a say on abortion

Ballot initiatives have proven a winning strategy for abortion rights activists – but Ohio Republicans want to make it harder for voters

Poppy Noor
Mon 19 Dec 2022

Ohio advocates hoping to replicate a string of abortion rights victories fear being stymied by Republican lawmakers who are attempting to make it harder to pass citizen-initiated constitutional amendments.

Ballot initiatives put directly to voters have proven a winning strategy for abortion rights activists since Roe v Wade was overturned this summer, with six referendums delivering favorable results for pro-choice advocates.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/19/abortion-rights-votes-ballot-initiatives-republican-stop-referendum


Her miscarriage left her bleeding profusely. An Ohio ER sent her home to wait

November 15, 2022
Selena Simmons-Duffin
8-Minute Listen with Transcript

Christina Zielke and her husband were excited when she got pregnant in July. It was her first pregnancy at age 33 – everything was new. But during the ultrasound at her initial prenatal appointment in Washington D.C., there was no heartbeat. Bloodwork taken a few days apart showed her pregnancy hormone levels were dropping.

A doctor from her Ob-Gyn's office called her to confirm that the pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage. They laid out her options: Take medication to make the pregnancy tissue come out faster, have a dilation and curettage or D&C procedure to remove the pregnancy tissue from her uterus, or wait for it to come out on its own.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/15/1135882310/miscarriage-hemorrhage-abortion-law-ohio


Abortion foes downplay complex post-Roe v. Wade realities

By AMANDA SEITZ and JOSH KELETY
July 28, 2022

In televised statements and interviews, anti-abortion advocates have used misleading rhetoric about abortion access to downplay fallout and complications from restrictive abortion laws as doctors, struggling to interpret laws that have largely been untested in courts, turn away pregnant patients for care.

https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-ohio-government-and-politics-4eb0712711637e51c3676c852a6b2d7c


USA – How anti-abortion advocates are pushing local bans, city by small city

Across Ohio, tactics pioneered in Texas are being deployed in disruptive city council meetings

Audra Jane Heidrichs
Tue 23 Nov 2021

In May of this year, six city council members in Lebanon, Ohio, a city located just north of Cincinnati, voted on an ordinance that would effectively outlaw abortion for the 21,000 people that call it home.

As in countless council meetings in small cities across the country where mask mandates, teaching about race in schools and access to reproductive healthcare have become politically charged in America’s current climate, the night unfolded in a series of near-Shakespearean acts.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/23/anti-abortion-local-bans-ohio


Texas created a blueprint for abortion restrictions. Republican-controlled states may follow suit.

How other states may follow Texas’s restrictive abortion law

By Meryl Kornfield, Caroline Anders and Audra Heinrichs - Washington
Post
September 3, 2021

Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states across the country moved
this week to replicate Texas’s restrictive abortion ban after the Supreme Court
declined to step in and stop the law from taking effect.

GOP officials in at least seven states, including Arkansas, Florida, South
Carolina and South Dakota, have suggested they may review or amend their
states’ laws to mirror Texas’s legislation, which effectively bans abortions
after six weeks. Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio and more are expected to
follow, after a year abortion activists have deemed “the worst legislative year
ever for U.S. abortion rights.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/03/texas-abortion-ban-states/


Ohio bill orders doctors to ‘reimplant ectopic pregnancy’ or face ‘abortion murder’ charges

Ohio bill orders doctors to ‘reimplant ectopic pregnancy’ or face 'abortion murder' charges
Ohio introduces one of the most extreme bills to date for a procedure that does not exist in medical science

Jessica Glenza
Fri 29 Nov 2019

A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.

This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/29/ohio-extreme-abortion-bill-reimplant-ectopic-pregnancy


How States Are Preparing For A Potential Roe v. Wade Challenge

How States Are Preparing For A Potential Roe v. Wade Challenge

April 23, 2019
by Priyanka Boghani

Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s ascent to the Supreme Court last year brought the future of abortion access into question. Lawmakers and activists on both sides of the debate saw his confirmation — and a shift to a conservative-leaning court — as a step toward overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the U.S.

Ahead of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, warned that the Supreme Court would “take away and criminalize women’s reproductive freedom.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, laid out his hopes for Kavanaugh: “If there’s a case before him that challenges Roe v. Wade [I hope] that he would listen to both sides of the story, apply a test to overturn precedent.”

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-states-are-preparing-for-a-potential-roe-v-wade-challenge/


Heartbeat Abortion Bills Were Once a Fringe Idea. Could They Overturn Roe v. Wade?

Heartbeat Abortion Bills Were Once a Fringe Idea. Could They Overturn Roe v. Wade?
Three states have enacted heartbeat bills. Ten more are considering them.
Emily Shugerman
03.29.19

When anti-abortion activist Janet Porter first introduced the idea of a “heartbeat” bill in 2011, she was almost laughed out of the room. The proposal—to ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat could be detected, or at about six weeks gestation—was so extreme that many of her fellow Republicans thought it was impossible.

A decade later, GOP lawmakers around the country are rushing to adopt Porter’s signature legislation, in hope of forcing the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to re-examine Roe v. Wade. Georgia is poised to become the third state to enact such a ban in the first three months of 2019 alone. Ten other states are currently considering the legislation, which experts say would ban abortions before most women know they are pregnant.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/heartbeat-abortion-legislation-championed-by-janet-porter-was-once-a-fringe-idea-now-could-it-overturn-roe-v-wade


With new law, Ohio bans common abortion procedure

With new law, Ohio bans common abortion procedure

By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Sat December 22, 2018

(CNN) A bill that would ban the most common abortion method used in the second trimester of pregnancy was signed into law Friday by Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Senate Bill 145 prohibits the dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure, in which the cervix is dilated and the contents of the uterus extracted. Though there is no exception in the law in cases of rape or incest, there is one if the mother's life is at risk.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/21/health/ohio-de-ban-bn/index.html