by Grace Carr
Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a bill Friday banning dilation and evacuation abortions, common second-trimester abortion methods.
Senate Bill 145 prohibits doctors from performing dilation and evacuation abortions, an abortion method used when women are between 13 and 24 weeks pregnant. Dilation abortion involves tearing the fetus apart limb by limb so that the body parts can be extracted from the womb.
The law makes exceptions for cases where the mother’s life is in danger. No exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities are included in the bill, Fox31 reported Saturday.
“The method ban dangerously limits people’s options, undermines patients’ constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion, and compromises medical providers’ decision making,” Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio president Iris Harvey said in a statement, according to Fox31.
Pro-life Ohioans applaud the new law. “Ohioans can sleep easier tonight, knowing that the horrendous practice of dismemberment abortions is behind us,” said Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis, Fox31 reported.
Thank you Governor @JohnKasich for passing this law which will protect Ohio’s babies from being barbarically dismembered in the womb. #EndDismemberment
— Ohio Right to Life (@ohiolife) December 21, 2018
The ban on dismemberment abortions comes after Kasich vetoed a bill banning abortion upon the presence of a baby’s heartbeat in late November. He vetoed a similar “heartbeat bill” in 2016.
The ban on dismemberment abortions also comes amid a myriad of violations by Ohio abortion clinics. Your Choice Healthcare opened July 9 on the Northeast Side of Columbus, Ohio and was sued not even two weeks later for violating its contract.
Toledo Capital Care faces a $40,000 fine following an April 2017 Ohio Department of Health (DOH) inspection revealing that the clinic staffed failed to follow its own emergency procedure, according to The Blade. The clinic also failed to provide the paperwork requested by Ohio’s DOH on April 11, 2017.
State inspectors found 24 violations at the Toledo abortion clinic in the past 10 years, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
WATCH:
Nine other states ban dismemberment abortions, but the laws are only active in Mississippi and West Virginia, according to Fox31.
The number of U.S. abortions has hit a historic low, according to the latest numbers from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Nov. 21.
Ohio’s new dismemberment ban will become effective in March, according to Fox31.
– – –
Grace Carr is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Grace on Twitter.
