Ohio abortion cases have filed suit in state court to overturn the newly minted heartbeat law that has saved babies from abortions following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Following the decision, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued an executive order directing the Ohio Department of Health to adopt emergency regulations to implement Ohio’s Heartbeat Act. This Executive Order was in response to the federal court lifting Ohio’s Heartbeat Law ban. Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a legal petition to lift the ban over the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
This means that abortions in Ohio are now banned from 6 weeks when an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected.
But now Ohio abortion companies are challenging the law in the Ohio Supreme Court, asking for a temporary restraining order to block it. Read the lawsuit here.
Preterm-Cleveland, Planned Parenthood Greater Ohio, and other abortion providers on Wednesday asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order the state not to enforce the six-week “heartbeat” ban.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the law firm WilmerHale have filed the suit.
In addition to Preterm and Planned Parenthood, plaintiffs include Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, Women’s Med Group Professional Corp. in Dayton, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, Toledo Women’s Center, and Dr. Sharon Liner, an individual abortion provider.
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The lawsuit specifically argues for protecting women’s reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity under the Ohio Constitution under the Due Course of Law Clause. The case said that the heartbeat law discriminates against women in violation of the equal protection and benefits clause.
In response to the lawsuit, Center for Christian Virtue Center chairman Aaron Baer told LifeNews:
“The ACLU and Planned Parenthood are trying to create an abortion mandate in the Ohio Constitution out of thin air. It is foolish and dangerous to suggest that our state constitution requires abortion clinics to destroy unborn life.
“Abortion activists have put together a deadly mixture of incoherent and unrelated sentences from the Ohio Constitution to justify their nonsensical actions. Center for Christian Virtue is grateful that Attorney General Dave Yost is serving the state to defend the law and defeat this damaging lawsuit.
“In the past 20 years, no serious legal scholar, not even pro-abortion lawyers, has attempted to argue that abortion is mandatory under the state constitution. The abortion industry has lost the debate among voters as they hope for a bailout from the state’s Supreme Court. The Court must quickly dismiss this case.”
Leading pro-life groups raved about the news when the heartbeat law was passed.
“The Heartbeat Law has been sitting on the sidelines in federal court, which could have saved countless lives in recent years. From now on, no baby with a beating heart can be aborted in Ohio,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “We are grateful that our Attorney General Dave Yost acted quickly and lifted the ban.””
Director of Communications Elizabeth Whitmarsh said: “Many would have been lax about this, but because we have elected strong pro-life leaders, thousands of lives are protected from abortion as of this writing. Our Attorney General and Governor saw an opportunity to save lives, and they did it immediately. This is real leadership and should be a model for moving forward.”
Mark Harrington of Created Equal added: “Today is a historic day. Not only is Roe dead, but the beating hearts of people too young to be born can no longer be violently mauled by abortion in Ohio. The Heartbeat Law may now prevent dozens of children from being killed by abortion every day. Ohio is on track to outlaw abortion and protect every human life.”
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was destroyed and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions, and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state to protect babies from abortion, Kentucky became the 4th, and Louisiana the 5th.
As LifeNews reported Today, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, holding a 6-3 majority decision in the Dobbs case that “the Constitution does not grant the right to abortion.”
“We believe that Roe and Casey should be overruled. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of any state from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey have usurped that authority. We now reject those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Judge Samuel Alito wrote before the majority.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and such a right is not implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one that Roe and Casey’s defenders now primarily rely on — the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Judge Samuel Alito wrote. in the opinion of the majority. “That provision is held to guarantee some rights not mentioned in the Constitution, but such a right must be ‘deeply rooted in the history and tradition of this nation’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty’.”
Immediately after the decision, Texas abortion companies announced they would be closing, and South Carolina said it had asked a federal appeals court to uphold the abortion ban.
Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or expeditiously ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The 13 states with trigger laws that effectively ban all or most abortions are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Judges ruled to uphold Dobbs, who limited abortion to 15 weeks in Mississippi, effectively quashing Roe v. Wade and returning the abortion law to the states.
“Abortion poses a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of any state from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey have usurped that authority. We now reject those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was wrong from the start. The reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have fueled debate and deepened divisions.”
This is a milestone for the Pro-Life movement and our entire nation. After nearly 50 years of staining the moral fabric of our country, Roe v. Wade is no more.
Judges Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer wrote a joint dissent condemning the decision to allow states to impose “draconian” restrictions on women.