The Franklin County Common Pleas Court blocked state requirements that included a 24-hour waiting period before receiving the procedure.
Judge David C. Young said the amendment’s language was “clear and unambiguous.” The proposed rules “burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, and discriminate against patients in exercising their right to an abortion and providers for assisting them in exercising those rights,” he ruled.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Alison Hatheway stopped laws banning telemedicine visits to obtain drugs for for an abortion and prohibited non-physicians, like midwives, from prescribing mifepristone, the abortion pill.
“The Amendment grants sweeping protections ensuring reproductive autonomy for patients in Ohio,” she wrote. “Plaintiffs have provided substantial evidence to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the bans at issue here violate these newly enshrined rights in a manner that is not the least restrictive and actually causes harm to” patients.
It’s important that courts continue to beat back these attempted restrictions because Ohio shouldn’t become Florida, Texas, or Louisiana. In those states, restrictions have led to pain and suffering for women who don’t have the same rights as in the Buckeye state.
In Houston, an emergency room refused to treat a bleeding pregnant woman. She miscarried in a lobby restroom as her husband called 911 for help.
In Florida, a woman carrying a child with no kidneys — a child doctors said would die — couldn’t get an abortion because the fatal diagnosis happened when she was 24 weeks pregnant, and Florida at the time banned most abortions after 15 weeks. The baby died shortly after birth. Florida has since enacted a six-week abortion ban.
In Louisiana, a report said that doctors are delaying care to pregnant women before doing an abortion since the procedure is only allowed if the mother’s life is in danger. One woman’s care was delayed so long that her fallopian tubes burst; in another, doctors elected to do a C-Section following a rupture that happened before fetal viability because they didn’t want to run afoul of abortion laws.
In the second instance, the Ohio Supreme Court approved deceptive language for this November’s Issue 1, which would abolish partisan gerrymandering. In 2015 and 2018, voters passed amendments demanding fair redistricting, and both times, Republicans ignored them because you can’t always get what you want. (H/T Rolling Stones).
Issue 1 is simple. If you vote yes, politicians — Republicans and Democrats — will no longer draw maps for redistricting. A new commission comprised of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents would take over the role.
It’s no surprise that the GOP is fighting hard against Issue 1 and has received valuable assistance from its court cronies. The misleading ballot language has one purpose— to deceive and confuse people in the hope they vote no.
The title says the bill would “create an appointed redistricting commission not elected by or subject to removal by the voters of the state. That’s obfuscation at its finest. The Ohio Ballot Board, which is governed by elected politicians, will be involved in the process.
The first paragraph reads the amendment would “repeal constitutional protections against gerrymandering approved by nearly three-quarters of Ohio electors participating in the statewide elections of 2015 and 2018 and eliminate the longstanding ability of Ohio citizens to hold their representatives accountable for establishing fair state legislative and congressional districts.”
That’s fiction. Gerrymandering has gotten worse because the GOP twice ignored the will of the voters so they could build a veto-proof majority. They now want those same voters to trust them.
Fat chance.
The purposeful manipulation of the amendment is smart. Most people don’t read beyond the headlines, and Issue 1 isn’t as easy to understand as abortion. It’s quite possible voters who aren’t paying close attention will believe the hypocrisy.
Voters ignored the lies and passed a woman’s right to choose. They should do the same and pass Issue 1 in November.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
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