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The Legal Challenge To Ohio’s New Heartbeat Abortion Law

A photo of a gavel on a flag.
ELVIRA KONEVA
/
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
The bill bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Ohio’s new law that bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected is supposed to go into effect in three months. But there’s a very good chance it won’t. There’s a legal challenge looming.

The ACLU of Ohio’s Legal Director, Freda Levenson, says the new ban criminalizes almost all abortions in the state. 

“This is a very clear violation of women’s constitutional rights that have been established for close to fifty years under Roe vs. Wade which became the law of the land in 1973. Women have a categorical right to abortions up until fetal viability,”  Levenson said.

Levenson says her group will file a legal challenge and ask for an immediate order to stop the law from taking effect. Gov. Mike DeWine and other backers of this law say they expected this, and hope it will eventually be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court with the chance of overturning Roe vs. Wade.