On Friday, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas sided with Ohio abortionists in granting a preliminary injunction against a law forbidding termination of pregnancies in cases when the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat.
Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the Heartbeat Act in 2019, though the statute could not take effect until after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision this June. Judge Christian Jenkins subsequently (D) placed a freeze on the law pending a determination. The state of Ohio is expected to appeal the injunction.
Though the state constitution does not mention pregnancy or abortion, Jenkins cited unrelated passages barring health insurance mandates and granting “equal protection and benefit” to all Ohioans as reason to insist that “there is a fundamental right to abortion under the Ohio Constitution.”
Plaintiffs in the case cheered the ruling. They included the federal, state, and local chapters of Planned Parenthood as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and its Ohio affiliate, Preterm-Cleveland, Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, Toledo Women’s Center, and abortionist Sharon Liner.
“We are thrilled with this second major victory and relieved that patients in Ohio can continue to access abortion as we work to fight this unjust and dangerous ban in court,” the petitioners said in a joint statement. “The preliminary injunction will be in place for the duration of our case, which means abortions will be legal in Ohio for a period much, much longer than the temporary restraining order granted. This court ruling will provide significant relief to Ohio patients and clinics.”
As litigation continues regarding abortion in Ohio, state statute will permit the practice to be performed at any point in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, abortionists terminated 21,813 pregnancies in the state in 2021, a seven-percent increase over the prior year’s total. Pro-lifers lamented this statistic as well as a revelation by the agency that abortions are disproportionately occurring in minority communities. Despite blacks being only 14 percent of the Buckeye State’s population, nearly half of women who obtained abortions in Ohio last year were black.
“The abortion data coming from the newest Ohio Department of Health report is astounding,” Students for Life of America tweeted in the wake of the report. “While only 12.4% of the OH population is Black, Black babies accounted for 49% of all abortion victims. It couldn’t be more clear that the abortion industry is TARGETING women of color.”
– – –
Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Ohio Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Christian Jenkins” by Hamilton County Courts.
