Ohio Democratic lawmakers are asking the state Legislature to repeal rules on the books they say run counter to the 2023 voter-approved reproductive rights amendment that is now part of Ohio’s constitution.
Several of these laws have been struck down by judges, either provisionally during legal proceedings or in official court rulings, but these laws remain part of the Ohio Revised Code.
Supporters of the laws claim that the constitutional amendment passed last year negates these provisions, which necessitates repealing provisions requiring a 24-hour waiting period for abortion and agreements on relocation over specific distances, e.g. for doctors and hospitals cooperating with abortion clinics.
“We, the legislature, should not have to make choices for all women in the state,” said state Rep. Beth Liston, D-Dublin. “The people of Ohio have said they want these decisions for themselves.”
Republicans hold a 67-32 majority in the Ohio House of Representatives and a 25-7 majority in the Ohio Senate, and state Republican leaders opposed the amendment.
Liston and statemate Anita Somani, D-Dublin, are both physicians House Bill 343 to the House Public Health Policy Committee in hopes of “simply ensuring that all state laws now comply with this amendment.”
“Removing these barriers to care will reduce delays in care and actually enable health care providers to properly serve patients,” Somani told the committee on Wednesday. “We have a health care access problem in Ohio, and restrictive laws like this are part of the problem.”
HB 343 wasn’t the only bill Somani introduced to the Public Health Policy Committee to protect reproductive rights.
House Bill 502, which also had its first committee hearing Wednesday, would protect access to “assisted reproductive technology,” which includes in vitro fertilization. Infertility treatment was also listed as one of the rights covered by a constitutional amendment approved last year by 57% of Ohio voters.
But an Alabama Supreme Court case this year sparked nationwide concerns about the future of in vitro fertilization and embryos saved by people undergoing fertility treatments. State Supreme Court justices ruled in that case that frozen embryos could still be considered children, and the issue came to be known as “personhood” as entities at the federal and state levels debated fetal viability and the regulation of the fetus as a whole.
The issue of “personhood” is no stranger to Ohio, which passed a bill in 2022 in which state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said the “unborn” is a “class of people” who have been “erroneously denied their constitutional rights.” “
Click said his legislation would recognize “zygote, embryo or whatever depersonalizing term you choose” as a “human being with potential” from the moment of fertilization.
This bill failed in the previous General Assembly, although Click did not rule out revisiting the idea in the next General Assembly.
In March, after the Alabama decision, Senate President Matt Huffman, soon to become speaker of the Ohio House, said that “no member of my caucus or anyone else has had ‘any discussion all the way to Ohio,’ as far as I know,” on regarding “personality” or in vitro fertilization regulations.
But Somani said protections for in vitro fertilization technology “should be clearly spelled out in state law so that there is no question about the legality of the practice.”
“We don’t want to make the same mistakes as other countries,” she told the committee on Wednesday. “Equating embryos with humans confuses those who practice evidence-based medicine and the reproductive care they can provide.”
The sponsors cited CDC statistics showing that in 2021, there were 2,226 births in Ohio that involved in vitro fertilization. That same year, more than 86,000 births nationwide were attributed to in vitro fertilization, and 42% of adults said they had used infertility treatments or knew someone who had, according to the CDC.
“Experiencing infertility can be a mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting journey, and we as lawmakers should not do anything that could increase that stress,” Somani said.
HB 502 would also prevent health care providers from being forced to release patient records to third parties, including out-of-state entities or law enforcement agencies, and would allow lawsuits to be brought by people who believe their privacy rights regarding medical information are being violated.
The bill’s co-author, state Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna, acknowledged that the timeline the bill is currently on has less than a month left in the current General Assembly and all unapproved bills must be reintroduced in the recent year. But she said she hopes the committee will give the bill’s supporters an opportunity to speak out about the importance of in vitro fertilization, especially given the possible impact of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling.
“This decision has significant implications for reproductive rights and the legal status of embryos, impacting legislation and public policy in many states, including Ohio,” Piccolantonio said.
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