The Ohio law that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, generally at six weeks’ gestation, will remain in effect while a lawsuit filed by abortion providers continues against it.
The law took effect after the state Supreme Court denied a request by abortion providers for an emergency stay on the legislation to allow abortions to continue while the lawsuit proceeds.
Abortion providers filed the lawsuit after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling June 24 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the Court held:
The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.
Ohioans are suffering in real time and we have not yet seen the worst of this health care crisis. All people deserve autonomy over their bodies and the power to make their own health care decisions.
— ACLU of Ohio (@acluohio) July 1, 2022
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio referred to the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs as a “health care crisis.”
“Ohioans are suffering in real time and we have not yet seen the worst of this health care crisis,” the activist organization said. “All people deserve autonomy over their bodies and the power to make their own health care decisions.”
In September, the same ACLU described the government’s forcing Americans to take the COVID vaccines, whose safety and efficacy had not been proven, as a “justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity.”
“[V]accine mandates actually further [sic] civil liberties,” ACLU asserted.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost posted to Twitter that the lawsuit filed against the Heartbeat Law was not only filed “in the wrong court,” but also that the abortion providers were incorrect in their statements about Ohio law.
“Races don’t start at the finish line, and lawsuits don’t start in the final court,” Yost said. “Aside from filing the wrong action in the wrong court, they are wrong as well on Ohio law. Abortion is not in the Ohio Constitution.”
AG Yost issued the following statement regarding the abortion-related ACLU lawsuit filed today in the Ohio Supreme Court: pic.twitter.com/Nq925fSULu
— Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (@OhioAG) June 29, 2022
Ohio Right to Life celebrated the state Supreme Court’s decision.
BREAKING: The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the pro-abortion radicals attempt to block the Heartbeat Law. 🙌🏼🙌🏼
1/3🧵
"The Ohio Supreme Court got it right. What the abortion proponents attempted to do legally could not be done."- @MGonidakis— Ohio Right to Life #EndAbortionOhio (@ohiolife) July 1, 2022
“The Ohio Supreme Court got it right,” said the pro-life group’s president Mike Gonidakis. “What the abortion proponents attempted to do legally could not be done. The good news is that the Heartbeat law will remain in effect and save countless lives today and moving forward.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ohio Supreme Court” by Sixflashphoto. CC BY-SA 4.0.
