(Photo: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)
Supporters of a bill requiring doctors to read state-required language for a drug used to treat abortion told an Ohio Senate committee that the bill is not about punishment but about liability.
Those who spoke on Wednesday before the Senate Health Committee regarding Senate Bill 309 they represented anti-abortion groups and members of pregnancy support centers. Pregnancy counseling centers are often religiously affiliated and typically do not discuss abortion or promote pregnancy over other options, some using state funds.
The committee heard from women who argued that doctors should be held responsible for complications and sedate side effects that may occur when using mifepristone, a drug used in a two-drug regimen used to perform medical abortions. Some even argued that the bill could be expanded to include physicians’ liability for other drugs.
“When I’m administering medications, when I’m with my own children at the doctor’s office, informed consent is ideal, but it doesn’t happen irregularly or as it should,” said Alyssa Thomas, medical manager at health centers that make pregnancy decisions.
SB 309 would require doctors to provide patients with a written statement demonstrating their legal ability to hold doctors, facilities and even drug manufacturers liable for any complications that were not disclosed before the drug was administered. The bill applies specifically to mifepristone, not other drugs.
Doctors and abortion rights advocates say the bill duplicates informed consent, which is already part of their medical training, and may cause distrust between patients and doctors, while taking no action in the field of medical safety.
Supporters also cite decades of medical research that shows the drug is generally unthreatening and that side effects are statistically infrequent.
Supporters of the Ohio Senate bill mainly point to one study cited in other state legislation could regulate abortion proceduresa study that abortion rights researchers say has not been peer-reviewed and that indicated that emergency visits for any reason under “adverse effects” count for mifepristone.
“We’re really looking at this – whether it’s safe, what this information shows us,” said state Sen. Beth Liston, D-Dublin. “I see widely used drugs that have a lot of safety data behind them.”
Katie Deland of the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life stood by the study, which they say shows greater risks with the drugs, saying it is a “well-supported study.”
Abortion advocates said the study’s data proves mifepristone needs further regulation and the Senate bill would provide women with further protection. People who spoke to the committee said they had seen an enhance in women expressing a lack of knowledge about side effects and shared individual stories from women they believed had severe symptoms caused by the abortion drug.
The Ohio Department of Health’s most recent annual abortion report shows that in 2024, a total of 21,829 induced abortions occurred in the state. Required post-abortion care reports on complications show that 196 had complications, representing less than 1% of all abortions in the state.
Democrats on the committee opposed the concept of the bill and what it would do in a state where 57% of voters approved constitutional protections for reproductive rights, including abortion, in 2023.
“We all know that our Ohio Constitution states that we cannot discriminate in reproductive health care and abortion care, and from what I see, this is a specific statute that discriminates solely for that purpose,” Liston said.
Deland said the bill “does not prohibit abortion, does not prohibit access to abortion, does not restrict abortion.”
“It’s really just information,” Deland said.
Liston asked Deland whether the Legislature should require doctors to read this statement for other “objectively much higher risk drugs.”
“I think it’s worth looking into,” Deland said. “I think we’re probably in America right now with this MAHA movement. On both sides of the aisle you’re looking at Big Pharma, what’s going on, what are we consuming, what don’t we know?”
“MAHA” refers to “Make America Healthy Again,” a Trump administration movement to overhaul health standards led by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Democratic committee member Sen. Catherine Ingram of Cincinnati urged supporters to talk about the bill’s lack of language when it comes to information about the procedure. He believes that the mandatory language that doctors should read is merely a statement of legal responsibility.
“My concern is not that we don’t want them to have that information, we really do, but I also believe that people … can make those choices for themselves and should be informed,” Ingram said. “This bill and language…does not do what needs to be done.”
As a physician, Liston has stated that she has difficulty accepting “a pre-prepared state statement as informed consent” rather than an individualized conversation between a patient and a doctor.
“I really struggle with the lack of ability to make medical judgments or decisions in this bill,” Liston said.
The bill has a good chance of passing the majority Republican committee and a majority of the Republican General Assembly, which has passed similar legislation in the past and leaned toward anti-abortion provisions despite amending the constitution. Among other current Republican-led legislation is a bill to create “personhood” for fetuses through the U.S. Constitution, which would bypass state constitution language.
Senator Kristina Roegner, a member of the Republican Senate Health Committee, thanked the bill’s supporters for “fighting for their lives.”
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