The fight over Ohio’s six-week abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country, continues in court.
Republican Attorney General Dave Yost has appealed a judge’s decision striking down that ban after last year’s approval of Issue 1, a constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion. The six-week ban, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest, went into effect after the US Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion in June 2022. Enforcement of the ban was blocked in October 2022 after abortion providers sued.
Yost said before last fall’s vote to guarantee abortion and reproductive rights in the constitution that the six-week ban would not exist if the amendment were approved. But he’s since suggested that provisions requiring an ultrasound and distribution of information also in the law, which passed in 2019 as Senate Bill 23, could still stand even after the amendment’s approval.
After Issue 1 was approved last fall, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the case back to Hamilton County, where it was filed. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins wrote in his decision overturning the ban last month that “Ohio voters have spoken. The Ohio Constitution now unequivocally protects the right to abortion.”
Yost's spokesperson said in a statement: “Seeking appellate review is a necessary and appropriate step. The state respects the will of the people regarding the six-week abortion ban, but the state is also obligated to protect provisions in SB23, as passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor, that the constitutional amendment does not address. It is up to the courts to determine how conflicts between those two documents are resolved.”
Republicans who dominate the General Assembly have not repealed any abortion-related legislation since the reproductive rights amendment passed last fall - instead they're allowing the courts to handle existing laws. The case is likely to end up at the Ohio Supreme Court, which starting next year will have six Republicans and one Democrat on the bench.
