What Ohio’s proposed abortion amendment really does: Dan Kobil
Published: Oct. 04, 2023, 5:17 a.m.
Ohio
Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers addresses the Ohio Supreme Court
Sept. 27 in a case challenging the temporary stay on Ohio's fetal
"heartbeat" abortion law. On the bench, from left: Justices Jennifer
Brunner, Michael Donnelly, Patrick Fisher, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy,
and Justices Patrick DeWine and Melody Stewart. Judge Matthew Byrne of
the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals is sitting in, far right, for
Justice Joe Deters, who recused himself.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, it
said that each state should decide the scope of abortion rights. This
November, Ohio will vote on exactly that: whether to amend our
constitution to restore the reproductive freedoms that the court took
away in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.
Following
Dobbs, Ohio implemented one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion
laws. It now bans all abortions after cardiac activity can be detected
in the fetus — as early as six weeks. This is well before many women
even know they are pregnant.
Ohio’s
radical prohibition also contains no exceptions for rape or incest.
Prior to being temporarily stayed by an Ohio court, these restrictions
forced a 10-year-old girl who had been raped to travel to Indiana to terminate her pregnancy so that she was not forced to bear the rapist’s child.
Confronted by a legislature impervious to the hardships imposed on women, the proposed amendment seeks to restore all
of the rights cast into doubt when the high court overturned Roe. Dobbs
undercut not just a right to abortion, but it also questioned the
freedom to obtain contraception, to resist compelled sterilization, and
even to engage in consensual sexual activity.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,698
my devoutly Catholic Governor ladies and gentlemen.
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File photo of early voters at the Franklin County Board of Elections. (Photo by Marty Schladen, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Voters in Democratic-stronghold
counties are showing up in mass to vote early for the November election
on abortion and marijuana, exceeding the already unexpectedly large
turnout from the August special election.
“For these things that are on the ballot right now, which are very
important, I just wanted to make sure my vote is in and counted,” voter
Ellen Rosenblatt said.
Rosenblatt wanted to decide if abortion and recreational marijuana
should be legal. She is one of the tens of thousands of early voters in
Cuyahoga County.
Mike West, with the county board of elections, is excited that so many people are interested and showing up for this election.
“We’re gonna have a pretty healthy turnout for this election,” he said.
The best way to compare this typically-municipal-year election is with the recent special election on August 8.
Analysis
Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau reached out to a dozen counties with
different political leanings all across the state. She got data and
calculated from the 11th day of early voting — which Ohio has data for
now. This means that the data comes up to July 25 for the August
election and Oct. 25 for the November election.
The reason they are both the 25th is due to the fact that November
voters lost a day due to the federal holiday, so a day was removed from
July.
Cuyahoga County is seeing about the same for in-person ballots cast but has a large increase in absentee ballots.
“We are way ahead, by around 10,000 vote-by-mail ballot applications,” West said.
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I love to see unpopular opinions like abortion (and gay marriage about 15 years ago) bring the opposition to the polls.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,698
I love to see unpopular opinions like abortion (and gay marriage about 15 years ago) bring the opposition to the polls.
we smacked down an effort to raise the threshhold for amending our state constitution by a wide margin in the August special election after the gop here outlawed special elections last dec or jan... was still a lot of room for participation too.
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File photo of early voters at the Franklin County Board of Elections. (Photo by Marty Schladen, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Voters in Democratic-stronghold
counties are showing up in mass to vote early for the November election
on abortion and marijuana, exceeding the already unexpectedly large
turnout from the August special election.
“For these things that are on the ballot right now, which are very
important, I just wanted to make sure my vote is in and counted,” voter
Ellen Rosenblatt said.
Rosenblatt wanted to decide if abortion and recreational marijuana
should be legal. She is one of the tens of thousands of early voters in
Cuyahoga County.
Mike West, with the county board of elections, is excited that so many people are interested and showing up for this election.
“We’re gonna have a pretty healthy turnout for this election,” he said.
The best way to compare this typically-municipal-year election is with the recent special election on August 8.
Analysis
Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau reached out to a dozen counties with
different political leanings all across the state. She got data and
calculated from the 11th day of early voting — which Ohio has data for
now. This means that the data comes up to July 25 for the August
election and Oct. 25 for the November election.
The reason they are both the 25th is due to the fact that November
voters lost a day due to the federal holiday, so a day was removed from
July.
Cuyahoga County is seeing about the same for in-person ballots cast but has a large increase in absentee ballots.
“We are way ahead, by around 10,000 vote-by-mail ballot applications,” West said.
continues.....
There’s still much to be hopeful about.
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,698
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Ohio voters enshrine abortion access in constitution in latest statewide win for reproductive rights
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
1 minute ago
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care, the latest victory for abortion rights supporters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Ohio became the seventh state where voters decided to protect abortion access after the landmark ruling and was the only state to consider a statewide abortion rights question this year.
The outcome of the intense, off-year election could be a bellwether for 2024, when Democrats hope the issue will energize their voters and help President Joe Biden keep the White House. Voters in Arizona, Missouri and elsewhere are expected to vote on similar protections next year.
Ohio’s constitutional amendment, on the ballot as Issue 1, included some of the most protective language for abortion access of any statewide ballot initiative since the Supreme Court’s ruling. Opponents had argued that the amendment would threaten parental rights, allow unrestricted gender surgeries for minors and revive “partial birth” abortions, which are federally banned.
Public polling shows about two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a sentiment that has been underscored in both Democratic and deeply Republican states since the justices overturned Roe in June 2022.
Before the Ohio vote, statewide initiatives in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont had either affirmed abortion access or turned back attempts to undermine the right.
Voter turnout for Ohio’s constitutional amendment, including early voting, was robust for an off-year election. Issue 1’s approval will all but certainly undo a 2019 state law passed by Republicans that bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, with no exceptions for rape and incest. That law, currently on hold because of court challenges, is one of roughly two dozen restrictions on abortion the Ohio Legislature has passed in recent years.
Issue 1 specifically declared an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including birth control, fertility treatments, miscarriage and abortion.
It allowed the state to regulate the procedure after fetal viability, as long as exceptions were provided for cases in which a doctor determined the “life or health” of the woman was at risk. Viability was defined as the point when the fetus had “a significant likelihood of survival” outside the womb, with reasonable interventions.
Anti-abortion groups, with the help of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, tested a variety of messages to try to defeat the amendment, primarily focusing on the idea that the proposal was too extreme for the state. The supporters’ campaign centered on a message of keeping government out of families’ private affairs.
The latest vote followed an August special election called by the Republican-controlled Legislature that was aimed at making future constitutional changes harder to pass by increasing the threshold from a simple majority vote to 60%. That proposal was aimed in part at undermining the abortion-rights measure decided Tuesday.
Voters overwhelmingly defeated that special election question, setting the stage for the high-stakes fall abortion campaign.
___
Associated Press writer Samantha Hendrickson in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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will put this here as it pertains to reproductive health care
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Attorney General who opposed Issue 1 will likely argue in court it erases six-week abortion ban
The Statehouse News Bureau |
By
Karen Kasler
Published November 17, 2023 at 3:29 PM EST
Karen Kasler
/
Statehouse News Bureau
Attorney
General Dave Yost speaking at a "get out the vote" event at Ohio
Republican Party headquarters on Oct. 7, 2023, the weekend before early
voting began for the Nov. 7 election on a constitutional amendment on
abortion access and reproductive rights.
The Ohio Supreme Court is
asking the parties involved in a lawsuit over Ohio’s law banning
abortion after six weeks to submit arguments on what effect, if any, the
abortion and reproductive rights amendment approved in Issue 1 has on
that case. And it’s looking like the attorney for the state is going to
have to make an argument he said he personally disagrees with.
Attorney
General Dave Yost hasn’t filed those arguments yet, but said this to a
group at Ohio Republican Party headquarters just before early voting
started.
"Somebody actually said this – "I’m not really worried
about Issue 1 because we’ll still have the ‘heartbeat bill’." No, we
won’t," he told the GOP volunteers.
That goes along with his office’s legal analysis
of Issue 1. That analysis said approval of Issue 1 would invalidate the
six-week ban. That ban does not include any exceptions for rape or
incest.
The analysis, ordered by Yost and written by attorneys and
staff, detailed some of the laws that would be affected if Issue 1 is
approved. Of the so-called "Heartbeat Act", the analysis said: “Some of
Ohio’s laws may be defensible, but the Heartbeat Act would not exist if
Issue 1 passes. Ohio would no longer have the ability to limit abortions
at any time before a fetus is viable. Viability is generally thought to
be around 21 or 22 weeks. Passage of Issue 1 would invalidate the
Heartbeat Act, which restricts abortions (with health and other
exceptions) after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually at
about six weeks. No other pre-viability limit would be allowed.”
Yost’s
office said in an email: “We have been ordered to brief these
questions, and will do so. We will speak through the brief.” The office
also pointed to language in the legal analysis on Issue 1 regarding the
six-week ban.
Yost also posted on social media
this week: “Having thoroughly scoured the Constitution, I find no
exception for matters in which the outcome of an election is contrary to
the preferences of those in power.”
The amendment approved by 57% of voters guarantees abortion access, but says it can be prohibited after fetal viability.
Ohio
Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis also said Issue 1 will mean the
six-week ban is unconstitutional: “I believe, yes, it will, because the
Constitution trumps state law.”
And in that interview for "The
State of Ohio", Gonidakis also said he believes the current ban on
abortion after viability, the so-called "Pain Capable" Act which he
helped draft in 2016, will stand—and he said he thinks that's what
voters want.
"I think we can find some common ground, and I
believe it would be our 20-week ban," Gonidakis said. "Our mission is to
protect life from conception to natural death. But if that's what we
can live with presently, and we'll have to continue to change hearts and
minds."
Nearly all abortions happen before 20 weeks. The 2022 Ohio Abortion Report shows 89% of abortions were conducted before the 13th week of pregnancy. Only 0.6% of abortions were performed between 21 and 24 weeks, and there were none after that point.
"I
firmly believe if we would have stopped at the 'Pain Capable' law, we
would we would have been successful last week," Gonidakis said.
As Ohio's Supreme Court asks
the parties in a lawsuit over the six-week abortion ban how it’s
affected by the newly passed amendment, the head of Ohio Right to Life
said he thinks Issue 1 makes the ban unconstitutional.
Senate President Matt
Huffman (R-Lima) says he doesn't think it is a good idea to put another
abortion issue before Ohio voters next year, and he doesn't think it's
necessary to pass policy changes because of the passage of the November
amendment either.
House Speaker Jason Stephens
(R-Kitts Hill) said he doesn't agree with an idea floated by some
Republicans suggesting Ohio lawmakers take power from courts when it
comes to the new constitutional amendment on abortion.
Rep. Jennifer Gross’s draft
bill would give the legislature the power to decide the
constitutionality of abortion access laws, stripping power from the
judiciary. Experts say it's unconstitutional.
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Ohio voters just passed abortion protections. Whether they take effect is now up to the courts
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Today
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s new constitutional projections for abortion access and other reproductive rights are supposed to take effect Dec. 7, a month after voters resoundingly passed them. That prospect seems increasingly uncertain.
Existing abortion-related lawsuits are moving again through the courts now that voters have decided the issue, raising questions about how and when the amendment will be implemented.
The amendment declared an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions” and passed with a strong 57% majority. It was the seventh straight victory in statewide votes for supporters of abortion access nationally since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections.
But the amendment did not repeal any existing Ohio laws, providing an opening for Republican elected officials and anti-abortion groups to renew their efforts to halt, delay or significantly water it down.
“A lot of that hard work of figuring out what state laws are inconsistent with the amendment and what state laws can remain, does tend to devolve to the courts,” said Laura Hermer, a professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, who studies access to health coverage and care in the U.S. "It’s difficult to imagine that the Legislature will say, ‘All right, you win. We’re going to repeal the heartbeat ban' and so forth.”
The state Legislature is controlled by Republicans whose leaders opposed the November ballot amendment, which was known as Issue 1. The Ohio Supreme Court also is controlled by Republicans, who have a 4-3 majority, and will be the final judge of constitutional questions. Several of the Republican justices have taken actions or made statements that have caused abortion rights organizations and ethics attorneys to question their objectivity on the subject.
Minority Democrats in the Ohio House announced legislation two days after the election aimed at avoiding a piecemeal approach to implementing the amendment. Among other steps, they called for repealing the state’s ban on most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is around six weeks, and a 24-hour waiting period.
“There are over 30 different restrictions in place," said state Rep. Beth Liston, a physician and co-author of the Reproductive Care Act. "And I think that it is important that we don't require citizens to go to court for every restriction, and, quite frankly, that we don't let harm occur in the interim.”
House Minority Leader Allison Russo was careful not to criticize the high court, which holds sway over the fate of those laws.
“My hope is they will uphold the rule of law and the constitution,” she said.
Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy last week ordered lawyers for the state and a group of abortion clinics to tell the court how they believe the measure’s passage has affected a case involving Ohio’s ban on most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, which has been on hold since October 2022.
A day after voters approved the amendment, U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett made a similar request of the parties in a long-running federal lawsuit challenging a set of state restrictions imposed on abortion providers’ operations. They included a requirement that clinics obtain agreements with a nearby hospital for emergency patient transfers, as well as a prohibition against public hospitals entering into those agreements.
At least three other Ohio abortion laws also have been on hold in the courts.
Passing legislation to bring Ohio law in line with the new constitutional amendment has been a non-starter with Republican lawmakers, who mostly opposed it and took extraordinary steps to defeat it.
With a primary election in their GOP-heavy districts only months away, they are facing fierce pressure from anti-abortion groups to go in the other direction and either pass laws countering the amendment or using their supermajorities to strip courts of their power to interpret it.
“The (Ohio) Constitution specifically says reigning in out-of-control courts is the legislators' job," the anti-abortion group Faith2Action argues in a recently released video. “So let's call on the legislators to do their job, to use their constitutionally granted right to represent us and to keep pro-abortion judges from repealing Ohio laws based on an amendment that doesn't even mention a single Ohio law.”
The video argues that the “right to life” created in Ohio's constitution is inalienable and that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade punted the abortion issue to “the people's elected representatives.”
But in his concurring opinion in that ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote that constitutional amendments were among the avenues for deciding the future of abortion access.
“Moreover, the Constitution authorizes the creation of new rights — state and federal, statutory and constitutional," Kavanaugh wrote. "But when it comes to creating new rights, the Constitution directs the people to the various processes of democratic self-government contemplated by the Constitution — state legislation, state constitutional amendments, federal legislation, and federal constitutional amendments.”
For now, Republican Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens has said legislation targeting the power of state courts will not be considered. GOP Senate President Matt Huffman has ruled out lawmakers pushing for an immediate repeal of Issue 1, as had once been suggested, saying nothing like that should be tried, at least in 2024.
How Attorney General Dave Yost will proceed also is being closely watched.
In a legal analysis of Issue 1 that the Republican published before the election, Yost said the amendment created a new standard for protecting abortion access that “goes beyond” the law of the land under Roe v. Wade.
“That means that many Ohio laws would probably be invalidated ... and others might be at risk to varying degrees,” he wrote.
Hermer, the law professor, said that statement is convenient for lawyers fighting to implement the constitutional amendment but such an analysis isn't legally binding for Yost.
“He doesn’t necessarily have to stand down, but, of course, having already said that, it’s going to make it a bit more difficult to hold those sorts of positions,” she said.
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Comments
What Ohio’s proposed abortion amendment really does: Dan Kobil
Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers addresses the Ohio Supreme Court Sept. 27 in a case challenging the temporary stay on Ohio's fetal "heartbeat" abortion law. On the bench, from left: Justices Jennifer Brunner, Michael Donnelly, Patrick Fisher, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, and Justices Patrick DeWine and Melody Stewart. Judge Matthew Byrne of the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals is sitting in, far right, for Justice Joe Deters, who recused himself.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, it said that each state should decide the scope of abortion rights. This November, Ohio will vote on exactly that: whether to amend our constitution to restore the reproductive freedoms that the court took away in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.
Following Dobbs, Ohio implemented one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws. It now bans all abortions after cardiac activity can be detected in the fetus — as early as six weeks. This is well before many women even know they are pregnant.
Ohio’s radical prohibition also contains no exceptions for rape or incest. Prior to being temporarily stayed by an Ohio court, these restrictions forced a 10-year-old girl who had been raped to travel to Indiana to terminate her pregnancy so that she was not forced to bear the rapist’s child.
Confronted by a legislature impervious to the hardships imposed on women, the proposed amendment seeks to restore all of the rights cast into doubt when the high court overturned Roe. Dobbs undercut not just a right to abortion, but it also questioned the freedom to obtain contraception, to resist compelled sterilization, and even to engage in consensual sexual activity.
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Ohio Democratic-stronghold counties exceeding early voting expectations for November election
By: Morgan Trau - October 27, 2023 4:40 am
File photo of early voters at the Franklin County Board of Elections. (Photo by Marty Schladen, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Voters in Democratic-stronghold counties are showing up in mass to vote early for the November election on abortion and marijuana, exceeding the already unexpectedly large turnout from the August special election.
“For these things that are on the ballot right now, which are very important, I just wanted to make sure my vote is in and counted,” voter Ellen Rosenblatt said.
Rosenblatt wanted to decide if abortion and recreational marijuana should be legal. She is one of the tens of thousands of early voters in Cuyahoga County.
Mike West, with the county board of elections, is excited that so many people are interested and showing up for this election.
“We’re gonna have a pretty healthy turnout for this election,” he said.
The best way to compare this typically-municipal-year election is with the recent special election on August 8.
Analysis
Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau reached out to a dozen counties with different political leanings all across the state. She got data and calculated from the 11th day of early voting — which Ohio has data for now. This means that the data comes up to July 25 for the August election and Oct. 25 for the November election.
The reason they are both the 25th is due to the fact that November voters lost a day due to the federal holiday, so a day was removed from July.
Cuyahoga County is seeing about the same for in-person ballots cast but has a large increase in absentee ballots.
“We are way ahead, by around 10,000 vote-by-mail ballot applications,” West said.
continues.....
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2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
we smacked down an effort to raise the threshhold for amending our state constitution by a wide margin in the August special election after the gop here outlawed special elections last dec or jan... was still a lot of room for participation too.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care, the latest victory for abortion rights supporters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Ohio became the seventh state where voters decided to protect abortion access after the landmark ruling and was the only state to consider a statewide abortion rights question this year.
The outcome of the intense, off-year election could be a bellwether for 2024, when Democrats hope the issue will energize their voters and help President Joe Biden keep the White House. Voters in Arizona, Missouri and elsewhere are expected to vote on similar protections next year.
Ohio’s constitutional amendment, on the ballot as Issue 1, included some of the most protective language for abortion access of any statewide ballot initiative since the Supreme Court’s ruling. Opponents had argued that the amendment would threaten parental rights, allow unrestricted gender surgeries for minors and revive “partial birth” abortions, which are federally banned.
Public polling shows about two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a sentiment that has been underscored in both Democratic and deeply Republican states since the justices overturned Roe in June 2022.
Before the Ohio vote, statewide initiatives in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont had either affirmed abortion access or turned back attempts to undermine the right.
Voter turnout for Ohio’s constitutional amendment, including early voting, was robust for an off-year election. Issue 1’s approval will all but certainly undo a 2019 state law passed by Republicans that bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, with no exceptions for rape and incest. That law, currently on hold because of court challenges, is one of roughly two dozen restrictions on abortion the Ohio Legislature has passed in recent years.
Issue 1 specifically declared an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including birth control, fertility treatments, miscarriage and abortion.
It allowed the state to regulate the procedure after fetal viability, as long as exceptions were provided for cases in which a doctor determined the “life or health” of the woman was at risk. Viability was defined as the point when the fetus had “a significant likelihood of survival” outside the womb, with reasonable interventions.
Anti-abortion groups, with the help of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, tested a variety of messages to try to defeat the amendment, primarily focusing on the idea that the proposal was too extreme for the state. The supporters’ campaign centered on a message of keeping government out of families’ private affairs.
The latest vote followed an August special election called by the Republican-controlled Legislature that was aimed at making future constitutional changes harder to pass by increasing the threshold from a simple majority vote to 60%. That proposal was aimed in part at undermining the abortion-rights measure decided Tuesday.
Voters overwhelmingly defeated that special election question, setting the stage for the high-stakes fall abortion campaign.
___
Associated Press writer Samantha Hendrickson in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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The Ohio Supreme Court is asking the parties involved in a lawsuit over Ohio’s law banning abortion after six weeks to submit arguments on what effect, if any, the abortion and reproductive rights amendment approved in Issue 1 has on that case. And it’s looking like the attorney for the state is going to have to make an argument he said he personally disagrees with.
Attorney General Dave Yost hasn’t filed those arguments yet, but said this to a group at Ohio Republican Party headquarters just before early voting started.
"Somebody actually said this – "I’m not really worried about Issue 1 because we’ll still have the ‘heartbeat bill’." No, we won’t," he told the GOP volunteers.
That goes along with his office’s legal analysis of Issue 1. That analysis said approval of Issue 1 would invalidate the six-week ban. That ban does not include any exceptions for rape or incest.
The analysis, ordered by Yost and written by attorneys and staff, detailed some of the laws that would be affected if Issue 1 is approved. Of the so-called "Heartbeat Act", the analysis said: “Some of Ohio’s laws may be defensible, but the Heartbeat Act would not exist if Issue 1 passes. Ohio would no longer have the ability to limit abortions at any time before a fetus is viable. Viability is generally thought to be around 21 or 22 weeks. Passage of Issue 1 would invalidate the Heartbeat Act, which restricts abortions (with health and other exceptions) after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually at about six weeks. No other pre-viability limit would be allowed.”
Yost’s office said in an email: “We have been ordered to brief these questions, and will do so. We will speak through the brief.” The office also pointed to language in the legal analysis on Issue 1 regarding the six-week ban.
Yost also posted on social media this week: “Having thoroughly scoured the Constitution, I find no exception for matters in which the outcome of an election is contrary to the preferences of those in power.”
The amendment approved by 57% of voters guarantees abortion access, but says it can be prohibited after fetal viability.
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis also said Issue 1 will mean the six-week ban is unconstitutional: “I believe, yes, it will, because the Constitution trumps state law.”
And in that interview for "The State of Ohio", Gonidakis also said he believes the current ban on abortion after viability, the so-called "Pain Capable" Act which he helped draft in 2016, will stand—and he said he thinks that's what voters want.
"I think we can find some common ground, and I believe it would be our 20-week ban," Gonidakis said. "Our mission is to protect life from conception to natural death. But if that's what we can live with presently, and we'll have to continue to change hearts and minds."
Nearly all abortions happen before 20 weeks. The 2022 Ohio Abortion Report shows 89% of abortions were conducted before the 13th week of pregnancy. Only 0.6% of abortions were performed between 21 and 24 weeks, and there were none after that point.
"I firmly believe if we would have stopped at the 'Pain Capable' law, we would we would have been successful last week," Gonidakis said.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s new constitutional projections for abortion access and other reproductive rights are supposed to take effect Dec. 7, a month after voters resoundingly passed them. That prospect seems increasingly uncertain.
Existing abortion-related lawsuits are moving again through the courts now that voters have decided the issue, raising questions about how and when the amendment will be implemented.
The amendment declared an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions” and passed with a strong 57% majority. It was the seventh straight victory in statewide votes for supporters of abortion access nationally since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections.
But the amendment did not repeal any existing Ohio laws, providing an opening for Republican elected officials and anti-abortion groups to renew their efforts to halt, delay or significantly water it down.
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“A lot of that hard work of figuring out what state laws are inconsistent with the amendment and what state laws can remain, does tend to devolve to the courts,” said Laura Hermer, a professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, who studies access to health coverage and care in the U.S. "It’s difficult to imagine that the Legislature will say, ‘All right, you win. We’re going to repeal the heartbeat ban' and so forth.”
The state Legislature is controlled by Republicans whose leaders opposed the November ballot amendment, which was known as Issue 1. The Ohio Supreme Court also is controlled by Republicans, who have a 4-3 majority, and will be the final judge of constitutional questions. Several of the Republican justices have taken actions or made statements that have caused abortion rights organizations and ethics attorneys to question their objectivity on the subject.
Minority Democrats in the Ohio House announced legislation two days after the election aimed at avoiding a piecemeal approach to implementing the amendment. Among other steps, they called for repealing the state’s ban on most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is around six weeks, and a 24-hour waiting period.
“There are over 30 different restrictions in place," said state Rep. Beth Liston, a physician and co-author of the Reproductive Care Act. "And I think that it is important that we don't require citizens to go to court for every restriction, and, quite frankly, that we don't let harm occur in the interim.”
House Minority Leader Allison Russo was careful not to criticize the high court, which holds sway over the fate of those laws.
“My hope is they will uphold the rule of law and the constitution,” she said.
Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy last week ordered lawyers for the state and a group of abortion clinics to tell the court how they believe the measure’s passage has affected a case involving Ohio’s ban on most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, which has been on hold since October 2022.
A day after voters approved the amendment, U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett made a similar request of the parties in a long-running federal lawsuit challenging a set of state restrictions imposed on abortion providers’ operations. They included a requirement that clinics obtain agreements with a nearby hospital for emergency patient transfers, as well as a prohibition against public hospitals entering into those agreements.
At least three other Ohio abortion laws also have been on hold in the courts.
Passing legislation to bring Ohio law in line with the new constitutional amendment has been a non-starter with Republican lawmakers, who mostly opposed it and took extraordinary steps to defeat it.
With a primary election in their GOP-heavy districts only months away, they are facing fierce pressure from anti-abortion groups to go in the other direction and either pass laws countering the amendment or using their supermajorities to strip courts of their power to interpret it.
“The (Ohio) Constitution specifically says reigning in out-of-control courts is the legislators' job," the anti-abortion group Faith2Action argues in a recently released video. “So let's call on the legislators to do their job, to use their constitutionally granted right to represent us and to keep pro-abortion judges from repealing Ohio laws based on an amendment that doesn't even mention a single Ohio law.”
The video argues that the “right to life” created in Ohio's constitution is inalienable and that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade punted the abortion issue to “the people's elected representatives.”
But in his concurring opinion in that ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote that constitutional amendments were among the avenues for deciding the future of abortion access.
“Moreover, the Constitution authorizes the creation of new rights — state and federal, statutory and constitutional," Kavanaugh wrote. "But when it comes to creating new rights, the Constitution directs the people to the various processes of democratic self-government contemplated by the Constitution — state legislation, state constitutional amendments, federal legislation, and federal constitutional amendments.”
For now, Republican Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens has said legislation targeting the power of state courts will not be considered. GOP Senate President Matt Huffman has ruled out lawmakers pushing for an immediate repeal of Issue 1, as had once been suggested, saying nothing like that should be tried, at least in 2024.
How Attorney General Dave Yost will proceed also is being closely watched.
In a legal analysis of Issue 1 that the Republican published before the election, Yost said the amendment created a new standard for protecting abortion access that “goes beyond” the law of the land under Roe v. Wade.
“That means that many Ohio laws would probably be invalidated ... and others might be at risk to varying degrees,” he wrote.
Hermer, the law professor, said that statement is convenient for lawyers fighting to implement the constitutional amendment but such an analysis isn't legally binding for Yost.
“He doesn’t necessarily have to stand down, but, of course, having already said that, it’s going to make it a bit more difficult to hold those sorts of positions,” she said.
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