COLUMBUS — A bill has been reintroduced in the Ohio House to outlaw abortions and to potentially prosecute physicians and their patients with murder if one is performed.
With the controversial “Heartbeat Bill” now in the rear-view mirror but on hold in the courts, House Bill 413 is the latest attempt to push the boundaries of state regulation of abortion in hopes of getting the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse or undermine its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
A variation on the bill was proposed last session but went nowhere.
Reps. Candice Keller (R., Middletown) and Ron Hood (R., Ashville) introduced the bill with 19 Republican co-sponsors, nearly a third of the entire caucus. Among them are northwest Ohio’s Reps. Derek Merrin (R., Monclova Township), Craig Riedel (R., Defiance), Jon Cross (R., Kenton), and Riordan McClain (R., Upper Sandusky).
“The time for regulating evil and compromise is over,” Ms. Keller said. “The time has come to abolish abortion in its entirety and recognize that each individual has the inviolable and alienable right to life. Only respect for life can be the foundation of a free society that supports peace, justice, and integrity.”
Ms. Keller is currently running for the state Senate.
“The most important aspect of this visionary legislation is the recognition that unborn children are human beings from conception and should be afforded the equal protection of our laws,” said Meg Wittman, executive director of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati.
Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said the bill’s language would affect forms of birth control if they prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterine wall.
“These politicians want a total ban on abortion, to classify any abortion as murder,” she said. “They want prosecutors to charge people who provide or receive abortion care with aggravated murder, which carries the death penalty.
“They would also remove protections for pregnant people who experience issues during pregnancy and place individuals experiencing a miscarriage at risk of criminal prosecution,” she said.
The measure is backed by the Right to Life Action Committee of Ohio, Dayton Right to Life, Cleveland Right to Life, and Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati. But it does not have support from the largest anti-abortion organization in the state: Ohio Right to Life.
“ORTL has been working to defend life and end abortion for over 50 years, but we believe the Heartbeat Bill before the courts now is the best vehicle to overturn Roe, and we will be watching carefully as it progresses in the courts,” said the organization’s president, Michael Gonidakis.
The position of Ohio Right to Life is similar to its position early on in the fight over the Heartbeat Bill, which passed earlier this year, was signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, and was soon put on hold in federal court. The law would outlaw an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, as soon as six weeks into pregnancy.
Once it succeeded with much of the rest of its agenda, including passage of a law that all but prohibits an abortion after about 20 weeks of gestation, Ohio Right to Life switched its position on the Heartbeat Bill from one of neutrality to support.
House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes (D., Akron) called the latest proposal a “patently unconstitutional political stunt.”
“This latest abortion ban from extreme, right-wing lawmakers is the most brazen and absurd attempt yet to deny Ohio women their fundamental freedoms, to interfere with the patient-doctor relationship, and disproportionately target communities of color across Ohio,” she said.
The introduction follows recent Senate passage of bills, now in the House, that could subject doctors who perform abortions to more criminal penalties and civil litigation.
Senate Bill 208 would require a doctor to do everything possible to save the life of a fetus who initially survives an attempted abortion. Senate Bill 155 would require a doctor to inform a patient seeking a chemically induced abortion about an unproven drug to reverse the process if she changes her mind early enough.
House Bill 413 would recognize the unborn as a person with rights. Any physician who performs an abortion by medical, surgical, chemical, or any other method would be subject to prosecution for murder.
The female patient could avoid prosecution only if she has filed a police report claiming she was forced to have the abortion.
The bill would provide an exception if an abortion is the unintended result of attempts to save the life of a pregnant woman. Abortion would have to be the intent of the procedure for possible prosecution to occur, said Margie Christie, president of the Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio and executive director of Dayton Right to Life.
First Published November 15, 2019, 5:10 p.m.
