Ohio’s modern bill would apply to facilities that are not regulated by the state but receive millions of dollars in state funding to promote “pregnancy and parenting.”
Democratic Reps. Anita Somani, D-Dublin, and Michele Grim, D-Toledo, contributed House Bill 565 on Tuesday to the chamber’s Finance Committee in the hope that “every person who enters a pregnancy and parenting center in our state will be provided with guaranteed standards and a certain quality of care,” according to Grim.
“The purpose of this bill is to ensure that pregnancy crisis centers use state funds to provide medical care, provide appropriate assistance to pregnant women and new mothers, and provide medically accurate information,” Somani told the committee.
Crisis pregnancy centers, called “pregnancy resource centers” by supporters, are typically religiously affiliated and have been criticized for misrepresenting the services they provide or the level of medical staff available.
According to the study, Somani cited a 2023 study of centers in central Ohio that found “gross deficiencies in the services these centers provide and misprioritization of these centers when it comes to the use of public funds they receive.”
As the Columbus City Council approved a 2022 ordinance authorizing the study, in partnership with Pro-Choice Ohio (now Abortion Forward) Right to Life Ohio Executive Director Peter Range said those working at the facilities are “some with the most kind, caring, knowledgeable and loving people you could ever meet.”
ORL communications director Elizabeth Whitmarsh said at the time that the study would “put vulnerable women at risk and deprive them of resources they need every day.”
Somani cited study findings that found one midwifery center in central Ohio spent just 3.1% of its budget on “participant education and support,” compared with 67% on staff salaries and benefits.
The study, a follow-up to a 2013 analysis of the facilities, was conducted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Wade v. Wade and the state reinstated a six-week abortion ban that had been upheld in court since then. 2019.
Since then, the six-week ban has become embroiled in litigation again, and with the passage of House Bill 1 in November 2023, abortion rights are now part of the Ohio Constitution, along with reproductive medicine such as miscarriage treatment and infertility care.
Since then too Ohio Pregnancy and Parenting Program, part of state law since 2013, continues to fund services “that promote childbirth, parenting and alternatives to abortion,” entities “whose primary purpose is to promote childbirth, not abortion,” and organizations that “are not engaged in or affiliated with any abortion activity, including providing abortion advice or referrals to abortion clinics, performing abortion-related medical procedures, or engaging in pro-abortion advertising.”
The program allocates state funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and Governor Mike DeWine has used his executive authority several times over the years to allocate TANF funds to the Pregnancy and Parenthood Program.
The latest state budget increased funding for the program to a total of $14 million over 2023-2025. That’s up from $6 million in the two-year period of the previous budget.
“I think it’s really important that they allocate the funds more towards the services they claim to provide rather than staff overhead costs,” Grim said.
HB 565 would require centers to provide at least four of the six categories of services provided in the bill’s language. The categories include resource distribution; counseling “on all options available to individuals, such as counseling and referrals related to abortion, adoption or parenting”; maternity care and parenting classes; health care “through licensed professionals, including contraceptives and reproductive health care”; sex education; and “any other support services, programs or related outreach.”
Somani stated that such regulation of facilities “will guarantee that pregnant crisis center patients have access to the medical care and parental assistance that these facilities provide.”
The bill will face difficulties because of the majority of the Republican Party, which approved increased funding for the Pregnancy and Parenthood Program in the last budget, and among them is a vast contingent of pro-life legislators.
One Republican lawmaker is trying to even further reduce funding for abortion providers and resources with a bill that could strip local government funds from municipalities that provide or support these services.
A spokesman for DeWine did not respond to a request for comment on the Democrats’ bill.
