ACLU and Planned Parenthood challenge Ohio abortion restrictions after voter referendum

2024-03-30 04:00:03

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood on Friday filed a legal challenge against some of Ohio’s abortion laws, now that voters of this state have enshrined the right to vote in the state Constitution.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of abortion clinics claims that because Ohioans voted overwhelmingly to protect such rights in an amendment last November, it violates the Constitution to require women seeking abortions to endure periods of mandatory waiting times and several in-person informational appointments.

“These laws now constitute a clear violation of the recently amended Ohio Constitution, which enshrines the explicit and fundamental right to abortion and prohibits the state from taxing, prohibiting, penalizing and interfering with access to abortion, as well as discriminating against patients and providers. abortions,” Jessie Hill, an attorney with the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement.

Ultimately, the laws interfere with patients’ well-being, provide no tangible health benefits, and lack medical justification, the ACLU alleges. Instead, according to the organization, these practices “unnecessarily” delay urgent care and force patients to receive “harmful, distressing and stigmatizing” information.

The ACLU is asking the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to declare the restrictions unconstitutional and permanently unenforceable.

The State Attorney’s Office, headed by Republican Dave Yost, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ohio is one of four states that have amended their constitutions to enshrine the right to abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

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Samantha Hendrickson is a member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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