YES! The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety

Despite the Ohio Ballot Board, led by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R), rewriting of the proposed amendment that was Issue 1 on the General Election Ballot, Issue 1 won overwhelmingly statewide – 56.62% YES and 43.38% NO. In Erie County, Issue 1 passed by 56.03% YES and 43.07% NO. Thank You all Ohioans! You saw through the misleading, incorrect information and outright lies that purposefully was intended to confuse voters by leaving out all the information regarding contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy and miscarriage care. LaRose focused on abortion and continues to lie about the medical procedure being used to kill babies right up to delivery.

Know the facts! Read the amendment language below. As of December 7, 2023, this is the language that will be enshrined in Ohio’s Constitution to ensure women and their families – along with their physicians – have the right to determine their own reproductive decisions that are safe and without interference from politicians. Again, THANK YOU!

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As states continue to legislate women’s reproductive healthcare options, the Supreme Court will debate whether states have the power to outlaw life-saving abortions in hospital emergency rooms. The court will hear Idaho v. United States to determine if the narrow exceptions in Idaho’s near-total abortion ban override federally mandated requirements for physicians under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA requires hospitals that participate in Medicare — the majority of hospitals in the country — to offer abortion care if it’s necessary to stabilize the health of a pregnant patient while they’re experiencing a medical emergency. The decision will determine whether women experiencing medical emergencies are able to get necessary care, when an abortion is that necessary, stabilizing care. See the 4.21.2024 article below.

As Ohio Republicans determined to continue their assault on undermining the Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety Amendment that was overwhelmingly supported by Ohioans last November 2023, a Republican bill recently was introduced in the Ohio Legislature seeking to prohibit state funding for abortion-related services, for which similar statutes and regulations already exist. State Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, brought forth House Bill 475. The bill would take away local government funding from a county, municipal corporation “that supports, promotes, or provides abortions.” Under this proposed law, presumably a public hospital could lose all of its state funds simply for performing an emergency abortion to save a woman’s life. See the 4.19.2024 article below.

Under the new constitutional amendment, the 2019 law banning most abortions in Ohio is now unconstitutional, Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed with the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. However. Yost had asked the court to only strike down the ‘core prohibition’ of banning abortions after six weeks and let other provisions of the 2019 law remain intact, such as: requiring a doctor to check for a heartbeat and inform a patient, as well as documenting the reason someone is having an abortion. Yost said in the filing that plaintiffs have not demonstrated how such provisions would violate the amendment. Common Pleas Court Judge Christian Jenkins will make a decision on this case. This is just an attempt by the Ohio GOP to ignore the will of Ohioans who voted overwhelmingly to enshrine safe and legal reproductive choices in the Ohio Constitution November 2023.

For years, conservatives have solemnly told us there’s no greater blessing for women facing an unplanned pregnancy than having the child. And now they’re telling women who want nothing more than to be mothers that they shouldn’t have the right to grow their families if they use surrogacy or IVF. In the end, the artificial lines between “good” and “bad” women are blurry, as abortion, birth control, surrogacy and IVF are clearly all the same fight. For the right, it was never about protecting life. It was always about controlling women. See article written by Susan J. Demas below for full commentary.

Several Ohio Republicans are still lamenting that legislators hands are now tied since an overwhelming majority of Ohioans voted to enshrine women’s reproductive rights and healthcare in Ohio’s Constitution. Some have even argued ‘voters didn’t understand what they were voting on.’ We did know what we were voting for: To keep government out of decisions that women, their families and their doctors should be making. We won’t go back and will remember any Ohio Republican who attempts to overturn Ohioans voices and votes.

Now that abortion is enshrined in Ohio’s Constitution, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost does not want the “Heartbeat Act,” which prohibited abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, dismissed. His brief still takes issue with the fact that a lower court judge was able to put the Heartbeat Act on hold in the first place. In addition, Yost now believes that at least part of the six-week abortion ban – aka Heartbeat Act – may be constitutional. Thus, he has asked a Hamilton County judge to dismiss the case. However. His 16-page filing didn’t include specifics of what parts of the six-week ban could still be constitutional.

Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman became the latest top Ohio Republican to say there shouldn’t be a ballot measure restricting abortion in Ohio on the ballot in 2024. Huffman expressed interest in banning abortion after 15 weeks into pregnancy, but said abortion opponents and others first should undergo some “soul-searching” before deciding on next steps. Huffman had said in a fiery election night statement that Issue 1’s passage would set off a “revolving door” of ballot issues to repeal or replace the measure, but abortion opponents have now backed off any plans to pursue any immediate changes. In the mean time, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the Heartbeat Law case due to voters’ passage of Issue 1 that caused a “change in law” which the justices cited in their ruling. Stay informed about what Republicans and their allies may do regarding the amendment that has now gone into effect as of December 7, 2023.

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FULL TEXT OF PASSED AMENDMENT

Be it Resolved by the People of the State of Ohio that Article I of the Ohio Constitution is amended to add the following Section:

Article I, Section 22. The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety

A. Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on:

    1. contraception;
    2. fertility treatment;
    3. continuing one’s own pregnancy;
    4. miscarriage care; and
    5. abortion.

B. The State shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either:

    1. An individual’s voluntary exercise of this right or
    2. A person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right,

unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individual’s health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care.

However, abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability. But in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.

C. As used in this Section:

    1. “Fetal viability” means “the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable This is determined on a case-by-case basis.”
    2. “State” includes any governmental entity and any political subdivision.

D. This Section is self-executing.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

What would this do?
Issue 1 would enshrine the right to an abortion up until viability,
which is when a fetus can survive outside the uterus with reasonable measures.
It also states that there’s a right to access
contraception, miscarriage care, fertility treatment and continuing a pregnancy.

Would this let minors get abortions without parental consent?
Critics say so, because the measure uses the term “individual” or “pregnant patient” instead of “woman.”
Ohio currently requires minors to get parental, guardian or judicial approval,
and a judge will ultimately decide if that law violates the amendment, should it pass.

Would this allow abortions up until birth?
This is another talking point among the issue’s opponents.
Under the proposal, abortions after viability would be allowed
to save the pregnant patient’s life or health.
That decision would be made by the person’s doctor.

That means late-term abortions could happen,
although they’re extremely rare in Ohio and nationwide.
Proponents of Issue 1 say abortions later in pregnancy occur only under difficult,
potentially life-threatening circumstances and don’t happen on a whim.

ARTICLES:

For information about November 7th, 2023 – General Election,
please visit here.