Judge puts hold on Ohio ‘heartbeat’ legislation
In the ongoing fight over the availability and legality of abortion in Ohio, both sides got what they wanted Wednesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Barrett of Cincinnati issued a preliminary injunction preventing Ohio’s “heartbeat” abortion ban from taking effect as scheduled next Thursday.
For abortion-rights supporters, the ruling swatted down what they see as an unconstitutional attempt by Ohio Republicans to enact one of the nation’s mostrestrictive abortion laws.
For GOP state officials, the expected defeat marked another step up the legal ladder to advancing a case to a more-conservative U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of reversing the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling granting abortion rights to women nationwide.
The Ohio law would prevent physicians from performing abortions in Ohio once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, generally around six weeks of pregnancy. Opponents said the law represents a nearly total ban on abortion, since many women do not realize they are pregnant at six weeks.
Barrett wrote that the abortion providers who challenged the law were “certain to succeed on the merits” given legal precedents such as Roe v. Wade.
“The law is well settled that women possess a fundamental constitutional right of access to abortion,” the judge wrote in his ruling. Ohio’s law places “an undue
burden on a woman’s right to choose a pre-viability abortion.”
About a dozen states have enacted heartbeat laws, but not one has survived a federal court challenge.
Jaime Miracle, deputy director of NARAL ProChoice Ohio, said in a statement, “The most important thing that Ohioans need to know is that abortion access is available in Ohio. When a person has decided to have an abortion, they should be able to access that care safely, affordably, in their community, with support and respect, not shame or pressure.”
Supporters of the law, including first-year Republican Gov. Mike Dewine, hope the measure will serve as a “vehicle” for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit — and perhaps overturn — its decision legalizing abortion. Abortion opponents hope two conservative justices appointed by Republican President Donald Trump would provide the votes to make abortion illegal across the nation.
“This was anticipated,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement
about Wednesday’s decision. The U.S. Supreme Court’s key decision in recent years on abortion used an “elastic legal standard ripe for review. This office will fulfill its duty to defend the laws passed by the elected representatives in the General Assembly,” Yost said.
In a statement Wednesday, Dewine said he long has believed the issue would be decided by the Supreme Court. Barrett wrote that since the state is making a “deliberate” bid to overturn Roe v. Wade, its arguments ultimately must be made to higher courts.
Chrisse France, executive director of the abortion clinic Preterm-cleveland, said, “Today’s ruling keeps abortion legal for all Ohioans, but we know the fight does not stop there. Ohioans deserve access to abortion that is safe, affordable and without shame or judgment.”
To the applause of about 30 abortion opponents, Dewine signed the heartbeat bill on April 11 following its passage by the Gop-dominated General Assembly. Dewine and supporters billed it as a needed
step to protect human life.
“While it is certainly disappointing that Judge Barrett would issue a temporary restraining order, it is certainly not surprising,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “The heartbeat bill has the potential to be the vehicle that overturns Roe v. Wade. We know that this ... order is just a step in the process to finally seeing Roe reconsidered.”
The challenged law would have made it a fifth-degree felony, carrying up to a year in prison, if a physician performed an abortion after a fetal heartbeat was detected, or without checking for one. The law carried an exception for protecting the mother’s health and life but contained no exceptions for rape and incest.
The plaintiffs in the heartbeat lawsuit operate surgical abortion clinics in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Kettering (near Dayton) and Youngstown. The ACLU and its Ohio affiliate, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Cincinnati law firm of Gerhardstein & Branch provided their legal representation.
Abortion-rights supporters also went to court in February to challenge and successfully delay a law signed by former Republican Gov. John Kasich that bans the dilation-andevacuation procedure, the most commonly used method of ending secondtrimester pregnancies. Barrett, appointed to the federal bench by Republican President George W. Bush, also issued that ruling.
The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Dayton filed by Planned Parenthood of Ohio and the Women’s Med Center of Dayton argues that the law places illegal and undue burdens on women seeking abortions after 15 weeks gestation in seeking to forbid the safest procedure.
Current Ohio law bans abortions, with exceptions for protecting the mother’s life or health, after 20 weeks. Kasich signed 22 abortion restrictions into law while serving as governor, but he twice vetoed heartbeat bills, saying they were unconstitutional.