An Ohio judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a state law banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy, restoring access to abortion in the state for now.
Senate Bill 23 was passed in 2019 and went into effect when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. The law prohibits abortions performed after early heart activity is detected — usually about six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant — except in medical emergencies.
With the judge’s decision, abortion is again available up to 20 weeks after fertilization (or about 22 weeks after the patient’s last menstrual period). The temporary ban is in effect for the next 14 days and the plaintiffs have requested a preliminary injunction while the case progresses.
“SB 23 clearly discriminates against pregnant women and places an enormous burden on them in securing safe and effective health care, so that it violates Ohio’s Equal Protection and Benefit Clause and is therefore unconstitutional,” the judge wrote in his order Christian A. Jenkins.
On September 2, Ohio abortion providers filed a new challenge to SB 23 in Hamilton County Circuit Court, arguing that the law violates the state constitution. The groups said they withdrew their original challenge to the law that was before the state Supreme Court, which rejected their request for an emergency stay.
“We are grateful that, for now, Ohioans can once again have widespread access to abortion care in their own state. But this is only the first step. We have already seen the devastating impact Senate Bill 23 has had on people seeking abortions in Ohio,” the plaintiffs and justices said in a joint statement.
The state’s abortion laws have come under particular scrutiny in recent months following a highly publicized case involving a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio who traveled to Indiana to have an abortion.
Preterm-Cleveland, an abortion clinic and one of the plaintiffs in the case, said Wednesday it would continue to provide abortions as long as it could.
Ohio Right to Life President Michael Gonidakis said in a statement that “with forum shopping, abortion activists temporarily got what they wanted.”
“We are more than confident that the heartbeat law will be back in place relatively soon,” he said. “Furthermore, we can assure pro-life Ohio that in the near future Ohio will be abortion-free, regardless of what this local judge decides today.”
Laws banning abortion or severely restricting the procedure have gone into effect in about a dozen states since the US Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to abortion. In several of these states, abortion rights advocates and providers have taken legal action to challenge abortion restrictions and have had some success in temporarily blocking the bans.
In neighboring West Virginia this week, lawmakers passed a bill that would ban nearly all abortions except to save the life of a pregnant woman or in certain cases involving rape or incest, sending the measure to the state’s Republican governor for approval.
