Two advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against a number of abortion restrictions in Ohio.
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have asked the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to strike down a state law that requires women seeking an abortion to wait 24 hours after receiving legally mandated information about the procedure in person. The organizations call the information “harmful, distressing, and stigmatizing” and that the requirement “unnecessarily” delays “time-sensitive abortion care.” Furthermore, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit argues that the laws violate the state’s right to reproductive freedom.
Ohio voters opted to add abortion access as a protected right in their state’s constitution in November of 2023. The referendum, known as Issue 1, was passed with just over 57% of the vote. The vote prevented the state’s previous six-week abortion ban from being reinstated after being paused through a court order. According to The Guardian, pro-abortion advocates were able to raise over $30 million – $20 million more than their anti-abortion opponents.
Ohio and three other states amended their constitutions to protect abortion access in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, per AP News.
“These laws are now in clear violation of the newly amended Ohio Constitution, which enshrines the explicit and fundamental right to abortion and forbids the state from burdening, prohibiting, penalizing, and interfering with access to abortion, and discriminating against abortion patients and providers,” said Jessie Hill, a cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Ohio, in a joint statement on March 29.
“We see the effects of the 24-hour delay on patients every day. This medically unnecessary waiting period puts a strain on patients, some of whom must arrange for multiple-day stays to access abortion care and, by design, even prevents some people in need from accessing abortion entirely,” said Dr. Sharon Liner, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. “Removing targeted restrictions against abortion means more agency for patients to access the health care they need when they need it based on their own informed decisions, as the Ohio Constitution now requires.”
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have asked for a preliminary injunction.
The debate over abortion access has heightened tensions in the state.
An Ohio pregnancy crisis center, which offers medical care and parenting classes but not abortions, was attacked in April of 2023 by a pro-abortion group. Members of Jane’s Revenge spray-painted anti-Christian and pro-abortion messages on the exterior walls of HerChoice in Bowling Green.
"This vile attack is part of a nationwide movement to intimidate, threaten, and terrorize pregnancy centers," Rochelle Sikora, the executive director of HerChoice, told Fox News. "These tactics are not only anti-American, they are based on misconceptions, misinformation, and outright lies. … Through the network of pregnancy centers across Ohio, families have access to over $15.1 million worth of services and materials."
