House Bill 145 banned so-called “dilation and evacuation” procedures, which are used in roughly 95 percent of second-trimester abortions — those taking place between 15-20 weeks after conception. The procedures are sometimes also undertaken after a woman has a miscarriage. Under the law, doctors performing the procedures could be charged with fourth-degree felonies and sentenced to a year and a half in prison. The law makes limited exceptions when a pregnancy presents a risk of death or serious injury.
The procedure accounted for roughly 3,400 of Ohio’s more than 20,000 abortions in 2017. During the second trimester, the only alternative to the outlawed procedure is inducing labor, an expensive and more arduous option.
Pro-life groups have applauded the passage of the bill, while advocates for abortion access have called it unconstitutional and cited opposition from physician groups like the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
“As a doctor, I know how important it is for patients to work with their doctors to choose the best medical procedure for their individual medical situation,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Leana Wen said in a statement today. “Medical decision-making must be free from political interference. This ban has no basis in medicine — it is opposed by medical organizations and will cause harm to women in Ohio. Abortion is part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care, which is health care, and Planned Parenthood will always safeguard the ability of our patients to access safe, legal abortion, no matter what.”
Nine other states have passed similar laws, some of which have been rejected by courts in Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and elsewhere after legal challenges.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed Ohio’s bill into law late last year before leaving office, though he vetoed an even stricter “heartbeat bill” that would have outlawed abortions as early as six weeks after conception. Lawmakers missed overriding Kasich’s veto by two votes in the state Senate and have reintroduced the legislation under new Gov. Mike DeWine, who has indicated he will sign it into law.
Both pro-life and pro-choice advocates have identified such legal restrictions — 20 of which Ohio has passed under Kasich and now DeWine — as attempts to trigger a court battle that could topple Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed women’s rights to abortion access.
Abortion opponents criticized Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit.
“It’s hard to imagine how Planned Parenthood could be in support of a procedure which allows living unborn babies to be ripped limb from limb,” Ohio Right to Life said in a statement. “At what point will the court reject Planned Parenthood’s frivolous lawsuits?”
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2019.
Id like to read an interview with one of the 3400 (or anyone) that has gone through the “dilation and evacuation” procedure. It sounds gruesome but perhaps if we could read the perspective of someone that has chosen to do this, then I could comprehend why someone would carry out this savage act upon themselves send their offspring.
The dilation and evacuation procedure involves dilating the woman for 2 days with seaweed sticks. Then a doctor inserts forceps into the woman. The fetus is dismembered with the forceps and removed from the woman. The skull is typically crushed so that it can be removed in pieces. This is one of the more humane abortion techniques.
If you don’t like abortion, don’t have one. Get as graphic as you like…I will defend abortion rights with my life if it ever comes down to that. Keep abortion safe and legal…by any means necessary…
150 years ago, our countrymen fought for the rights of those suffering under slavery. Now, Bonnie Blue (grizz65) above says he will take up arms to defend the women killing their offspring rather than for the helpless creature being dismembered and taken out of them.
I’d fight for the unborn and innocent against the evil that seeks to snuff out their life. Then again, we could just continue to let these demonics keep aborting their offspring. We probably don’t want to deal with their unwanted children anyways.
The new liberal policy on abortion: you can kill your baby any time before you get home from the hospital.
In an effort to see which state could pass the most extreme abortion laws, state Democrats have put forth a bill that allows for post birth abortions performed by gun at any time in the child’s life.
As a compromise on illegal immigration, Planned Parenthood has offered to build a 1,900 mile wide facility along the entire southern border to offer abortion services to incoming migrants.
You anti abortion morons really do take the cake. Are you truly so ignorant that you believe the killing of unwanted fetuses began with Roe v. Wade? Or that prohibiting abortion will somehow put an end to the disposal of unwanted fetuses? Men and women have been getting rid of unwanted pregnancies, fetuses, and, for that matter, live unwanted children since the dawn of time. Look how well prohibition works when it comes to say, alcohol and drug use, something that humans have also done since the dawn of time. That was a joke because anyone who doesn’t have their head planted firmly up their asses knows that prohibition has never and will never work. All you’re doing is putting women’s health at risk in order to advance your fraudulent religious nonsense on those who don’t adhere to your naiive, dumbass view of right and wrong. What will you think, I wonder, when one of your female relatives has to seek out some back alley abortion provider to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy and she bleeds to death? Oh I know, I know, your female relatives would never do that…. Get fucked you naive mouth breathers.
I dont think the commandment says Thou shalt not kill, unless youre a woman. Go ahead, kill all you want. God will remember what you did.
Fuck your god and his commandments. Clear enough for you? Your 2,000 year old horseshit religion doesn’t belong anywhere near public policy. Period.
Anti choice people just parrot whatever bullshit confirms their narrative. Yawn. Do some reading and educate yourself.
Behind those Bibles, pro-lifers, as they like to call themselves, support a woman’s right to choose. Damn betcha they do! A woman can choose any color coat hanger she likes! Grizz65 told me that knee-slapper while wer were cleaning and oiling our shootin’ irons a while back. We laughed until we cried!
Once again the battle field is your body and those who want control have laid Down their terms in black & white and red all over they keep the backstreet Butchers in business as advertised from a bullhorn and the all knowing man Has set up his make-believe graveyard with tiny white crosses for millions of Make-believe souls someday I’d like to see a cross set up for a real live Human being who bled to death to maintain the sanctity of mary mary & child Scream the bigots who couldn’t care less about human life obey their self- Righteous lies while your sisters & daughters die all decisions are final your Body is forbidden
Abortion advocates sure are showing their irrational and violent side here. Who would have thought.
Yeah, we make violent comments, you do actual violence against a females right to decide what to do with her own body. I know which group I’d rather be a part of.
Born against I can see you are actually stupid. Please continue to abort your children. The less idiotic DNA of yours we have sliming around this planet, the better.
Yes, clearly I’m the stupid one. This coming from the guy who says that we’re irrational and violent, and then advocates that I kill my children. I shouldn’t be surprised though, there would be no conservatives if there was no such thing as cognitive dissonance. Honestly though, what your comment tells me is that you aren’t morally opposed to abortion, since it seems you’ll advocate it, sarcastically or not, in order to obtain some type of victory in an internet argument. Your real problem is with women, probably due to a lifetime of rejection. Sad, really, but par for the course for so called pro lifers.
Too many unwanted, abused, neglected kids…who grow up with inadequate schooling, no discipline, no parental guidance, no love whatsoever, and whose home is the street and whose family is a gang. And that’s just the poor ones…the unwanted middle-class and rich kids have their own kinds of problems. All these problem children become problem adults. Our prisons and our mental hospitals and our graveyards are full of them.
And I haven’t even mentioned the “accidental pregnancies” that unmarried couples (and many married ones as well) do not wish to have because they are unaffordable or just not desired.
And yet, in the face of all this, the Bible-thumpers and born-again zealots scream: “YOU MUST HAVE THAT BABY! YOU MUST HAVE THAT BABY! YOU MUST HAVE THAT BABY!” over and over and over.
We know that Civil War 1,0 was fought over states’ rights and slavery. Look at the violent responses just in this thread alone. You don’t need any advanced degrees to see that Version 2.0 will be fought over abortion. That will be the issue that finally dissolves the United States. The right to control ones’s own body and one’s own destiny. Can’t get much more basic than that, folks.
But what the hell…we’ve had a good run…250 years. The heyday of most empires didn’t last much longer. Enjoy this final year of peace before the shit hits the fan. Next year…2020…will be the year the wheels come off and the train is wrecked. Thanks for nothing, you Bible-thumping motherlovers.
Women must have complete control of their bodies. Otherwise, they are nothing but chattel. Be aware that less than 7% of abortions are performed in the 2nd trimester and that in most cases the fetus is only 2 – 4 inches in size. So harrowing images of full term infants being torn apart is NOT what is happening in reality.