Photo via Progress Ohio/Flickr
If the current 5-4 vote tally holds, as Politico reported last night alongside a draft majority Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the nation's highest court is set to overturn Roe v Wade sometime early this summer.
Ohio's right wing state legislators have in recent years attempted and succeeded in restricting access to abortions with a frenzy of bills (bans on telemedicine abortions, fetal remains bills, etc), and should Roe fall, they are poised to pass full abortion bans — for example, a "trigger law" that would go into effect without Roe's protection and punish any doctor who performs the procedure with a fourth-degree felony.
While a post-Roe Ohio would join a sad list of Midwest and Southern states where Republicans will eliminate the right to choose despite the fact polls have routinely showed the majority of Americans think abortion should remain legal, many states will remain safe havens for women's health care.
But according to research this year from Ohio State, women in Ohio would have to travel seven to ten-times further in a post-Roe world for an abortion, somewhere between 181 and 279 miles, hurdles that are hard for anyone to clear but ones that will disproportionately hinder access for minorites, the poor, workers without paid leave, and those without a vehicle, to name a few.
"The cost of getting an abortion is greatly increased," Payal Chakraborty, an Ohio State graduate student who led a new study, said recently. "This would require missing work, finding child care, potential overnight stay, travel-related costs in terms of the amount of gas money or needing to access a car, etc."
The best thing you can do, now and if the worst case scenario comes to pass, is to donate to a clinic or an abortion fund, giving resources to those on the ground who pay for and facilitate abortions for women in need, including providing transportation and support.
Three in Ohio that you can donate to right now:
Preterm
Women Have Options
Agnes Reynolds Jackson Fund
