Attorney General Dave Yost is requesting that the Ohio Supreme Court reinstates the heartbeat law as readily as possible, which blocks the majority of abortions once a fetal heartbeat is found.
In accordance with the 2019 Ohio law, doctors are not permitted to perform abortions once heart activity has been identified – typically at around six weeks into a pregnancy. The law went into effect the same day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24th, 2022.
On January 3rd, Yost filed an appeal requesting the high court’s involvement. The filing came after Democratic Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins preliminarily blocked the law allowing abortions to continue in Ohio through 21 weeks and 6 days into the pregnancy and the First District Court of Appeals denied Yost’s attempt to appeal Jenkins’ ruling.
“This case presents the question of whether the Ohio Constitution protects a right to abortion. The sooner the Court settles that question, the better,” Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers wrote in an appeal filed last week. The Court may decide whether or not to examine the appeal because it is a discretionary matter.
According to Yost’s office, Ohio does not have a constitutional right to abortion. Additionally, the brief argues that abortion facilities, as opposed to people seeking abortions, lack the legal standing to challenge Ohio’s limits on abortion.
According to the filing, abortion is a “morally contentious issue on which well-meaning citizens hold deeply felt, irreconcilable views.”
“By deciding whether the Ohio Constitution takes this issue from the democratic process, the court can clarify Ohio’s ability to regulate abortion so as to address these competing interests,” Flowers wrote.
Democrats and abortion providers have challenged the heartbeat law prior to judge Jenkins’s ruling.
“Limiting the options available to medical professionals is not only foolish, but it is also dangerous for women in Ohio. Healthcare decisions should be made by the patient in consultation with a medical professional, not by a politician,” Iris Harvey President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio said in opposition to the law.
The filing states that the First District’s ruling could have significant repercussions.
“If allowed to stand, the First District’s ruling will leave the State with no way to protect legislation from egregiously wrong preliminary injunctions. Trial courts that issue such injunctions have every incentive to drag out lower-court proceedings, ensuring their orders remain in effect – and that state laws with which they disagree remain unenforceable – for as long as possible. Nothing in Ohio law requires that result,” Yost’s brief states.
Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy has succeeded outgoing Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor as the head of the Ohio Supreme Court. Both justices are Republicans, but in 2018 they disagreed on how to rule about the closure of Toledo’s abortion clinic for failing to follow state law. Kennedy and the other conservative justices ruled against the clinic and shut its doors.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dave Yost” by Dave Yost. Background Photo “Ohio Supreme Court” by Sixflashphoto. CC BY-SA 4.0.
