Ohio’s six-week abortion ban temporarily blocked by legal challenge

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – An Ohio decide on Wednesday quickly blocked enforcement of the state’s Republican-led ban on abortion after about six weeks following authorized challenges by a Deliberate Parenthood affiliate and different abortion suppliers.

Decide Christian Jenkins of the Hamilton County Court docket of Widespread Pleas in Cincinnati discovered that the state’s structure features a proper to abortion. Jenkins’ emergency order will expire in two weeks, however the suppliers have requested the decide for an additional order that might block the legislation so long as the lawsuit is ongoing.

“We’re grateful that, for now, Ohioans can as soon as once more extensively entry abortion care in their very own state,” the plaintiffs mentioned in a joint assertion.

The workplace of Ohio Lawyer Basic Dave Yost, which is defending the legislation, is reviewing the choice and can seek the advice of with Republican Governor Mike DeWine about subsequent steps, Yost spokesperson Bethany McCorkle mentioned.

Ohio in 2019 handed a legislation banning abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, sometimes round six weeks, with exceptions for stopping demise or severe harm to the mom however not for rape or incest.

The state’s Supreme Court docket allowed the legislation to take impact in July after the U.S. Supreme Court docket reversed its landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade guaranteeing abortion rights nationwide. Ohio’s legislation drew nationwide consideration later that month when a 10-year-old rape sufferer was pressured to journey to Indiana to get an abortion.

Of their Sep. 2 lawsuit, Deliberate Parenthood and the opposite suppliers argued that the state structure nonetheless protected the precise to abortion.

Jenkins agreed, partly due to a 2011 state constitutional modification prohibiting legal guidelines banning sale or buy of healthcare initially meant by opponents of the federal Reasonably priced Care Act to protect “healthcare freedom.”

The decide mentioned that regardless of its origins, the modification was “a direct recognition of the basic nature of the precise to freedom in well being care selections.”

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; enhancing by Diane Craft)