abortion naral pro-choice
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland, flanked by Northeast Ohio Democrats, said Wednesday the proposed abortion bans unnecessarily insert government between a woman and her doctor.
(Jackie Borchardt/Northeast Ohio Media Group)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Several Northeast Ohio lawmakers joined abortion-rights supporters Wednesday to push back against new abortion restrictions being debated at the Statehouse.
Ohio Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abortion organization, announced earlier this month it would push lawmakers to ban abortions after 20 weeks gestation and ban abortions sought after a pre-natal screening or diagnostic test showed the fetus could have Down syndrome.
One week later, two House Republicans introduced legislation that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected -- as early as six weeks into a woman's pregnancy, when she might not yet be aware she's pregnant.
"It seems the legislature here in Ohio like many legislatures around the country pay the most attention to women when they are restricting their rights," Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a Kent Democrat, said during a press conference sponsored by abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. "Instead of respecting women as full human beings capable of making their own decisions and with the right to control their own bodies, legislatures dominated by men around the country spend their time creating more obstacles to women's rights."
Clyde was joined by Democratic Reps. Janine Boyd of Cleveland Heights, Nickie Antonio of Lakewood, Kent Smith of Euclid and Emilia Sykes and Greta Johnson of Akron. College students from several Ohio universities were also at the Statehouse, lobbying lawmakers to oppose the proposed abortion bans.
Clyde said lawmakers have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, which they break by sponsoring abortion bans that go against the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The court allowed states to restrict abortion once a fetus is viable outside of the womb, sometime between 24 and 28 weeks.
Ohio Right to Life spokeswoman Katherine Franklin said the long-term goal of a 20-week abortion ban is to overturn Roe v. Wade.
"As late as 20 weeks, unborn babies can feel pain so that's an intrinsic milestone in a baby's development," Franklin said. "So by setting that into state law as a compelling state interest for the state to protect that life, it is redefining the abortion debate and really challenging the Supreme Court to come up with a new doctrine where it can intervene and restrict abortions."
Ohio would join 11 other states that ban abortion past 20 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion legislation. A 2011 Ohio law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks or when the fetus has become viable, which physicians determine by tests when women seek abortions after 20 weeks.
NARAL Pro-Choice Executive Director Kellie Copeland said between 1 and 1.5 percent of abortions occur after 20 weeks, but they often involve complications not known until that point, typically when an anatomical ultrasound scan is performed.
Copeland shared the story of Abby, who learned at that scan her baby had lethal dwarfism and would not survive. She said her insurance did not cover the abortion because it was "elective" but would have covered medical care once the baby died in utero.
"This government does not trust women like Abby or anyone else in this room to make their own reproductive health care choices," Copeland said. "And if they have their way, women will have to flee the state if they need later term abortion care."