A 2021 Ohio law requiring the burial or cremation of fetal remains from abortion has been blocked by a Hamilton County judge. The court ruled the law is unconstitutional under the reproductive rights amendment approved by Ohio voters in 2023. For Kellie Copeland, executive director of Abortion Forward, this ruling has been a long time coming.
“This is an important step in stopping anti-abortion legislators from lodging unfounded accusations of wrongdoing by abortion providers and enforcing mean-spirited stigma on abortion patients," Copeland said.
Jessie Hill, an attorney with the ACLU of Ohio, said Common Pleas Judge Alison Hathaway ruled the law violated the constitutional amendment by imposing burdens on women seeking abortions and their providers.
“The whole purpose of this law was simply to shame patients seeking an abortion and to make it more expensive," Hill said.
In the ruling, Hathaway wrote the law requiring burial or cremation of fetal remains “serves only to target and discriminate against individuals seeking procedural abortions and their healthcare providers.” Hill said the reproductive rights amendment is clear on laws like this.
“This is another case that shows the meaning and the strength of our reproductive freedom amendment in the Ohio Constitution that Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed in 2023," Hill said.
The court's ruling disappointed Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life.
"You know dignified burials are the least we can do as Ohioans for these victims," Gonidakis said.
Gonidakis said this is a case of a local judge providing a ruling that's out of step with Ohio voters.
"I think people are getting sick and tired of forum shopping, finding the most liberal court to take your case to. It's always Cincinnati apparently now. And to just take away the will of the people and a statewide election where we elected a governor. And it's time for this to stop," Gonidakis said.
When asked whether the 57% of voters who approved the constitutional amendment wanted this, Gonidakis was emphatic in his answer.
"That's complete nonsense and no voter in Ohio who voted for that thought that it would apply to a 24-hour waiting period, dignifying a burial for an unborn child. That's not what they signed up for and the day of reckoning is coming," Gonidakis said.
Gonidakis said his group is urging Ohio's Attorney General, Dave Yost, who is running for governor in 2026, to appeal the ruling. The state commonly appeals rulings involving abortion.
The law has been on hold since April 2021. Last April, pro-choice advocates went to court to argue the law violated the Reproductive Rights Amendment approved by voters in 2023.
That amendment has resulted in lawsuits filed against several abortion-related laws passed by Republicans, including the ban on abortions after six weeks, a 24-hour waiting period for abortion, and a ban on the use of telemedicine to prescribe abortion drugs.
