If there are not five votes, council can adopt the ordinance with a majority vote that will take effect 30 days after passage.
Just more than a week after the ordinance was approved, two of the four members who supported the ordinance, former councilmen Mike Gilb and TJ Honerlaw, lost their seats in the Nov. 2 election.
The ordinance, which was supposed to go into effect on Nov. 26, was stopped after petitions were filed seeking a referendum. According to Brian Sleeth, Warren County elections director, the petitions were validated and returned to the city last Friday for final action.
The ordinance that the previous council adopted cannot stop medical practices from opening in Mason, whether they provide abortions or not. It does, however, make performing or getting an abortion anywhere within the city limits of Mason illegal.
In addition to prohibiting a person from procuring or performing an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy inside the city limits, the ordinance also outlaws any person from providing transportation to or from an abortion provider; giving instructions over the telephone, the internet, or any other medium of communication regarding self-administered abortion; providing money with the knowledge that it will be used to pay for an abortion or the costs associated in obtaining an abortion; providing abortion doula services; or coercing or pressuring a pregnant mother to have an abortion against her will.
The ordinance also makes it unlawful for any person to possess or distribute abortion-inducing drugs in the city. It does not ban the morning-after pill or any other form of birth control or contraceptive.
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