Abortion Activists Use Ohio’s Constitutional Amendment To Target Informed Consent Laws, Just As Pro-Lifers Warned They Would

By Jordan Boyd, originally published April 4, 2024, The Federalist

Pro-lifers warned that abortion activists would exploit Issue One in Ohio to undo every layer of protection for women and unborn babies, but their cries fell on deaf ears.

Now, just four months after Ohioans voted to pass the constitutional amendment declaring “every individual has a right” to “reproductive decisions” regardless of their age or their baby’s gestational age, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the organization’s Ohio chapter, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit challenging the Buckeye State’s informed consent laws.

The motion for “unnecessarily requiring” women to wait to obtain an abortion often results in a delayed or canceled appointment.

The lawsuit comes at the same time Republican Attorney General Dave Yost agreed that Ohio’s 2019 law barring abortion beyond the detection of a fetal heartbeat is no longer constitutional after the state’s November referendum.

The reason for the suit is far from obscure. Now that Ohio has a free pass to end unborn lives and trample on parents’ rights, the abortion industry has an easy path to targeting what’s left of the state’s protections for women.

Ohio laws currently require women seeking an abortion to be informed of the dangerous and sometimes fatal risks associated with the practice and examined by a doctor who can estimate the unborn baby’s gestational age and find a fetal heartbeat. These requirements are paired with a 24-hour waiting period that is supposed to give mothers on the fence about their scheduled abortion time to rethink it and review the fetal development guide the state requires abortionists to hand out to expecting mothers.

Any abortionists who do not comply with these conditions could face scrutiny from the state medical board and/or criminal charges.

The plaintiffs, however, allege that this “interference” by the state is now prohibited under Ohio’s newest constitutional amendment.

“These laws are now in clear violation of the newly amended Ohio Constitution, which enshrines the explicit and fundamental right to abortion and forbids the state from burdening, prohibiting, penalizing, and interfering with access to abortion, and discriminating against abortion patients and providers,” Jessie Hill, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement.

Pro-life groups warned that the national abortion activist groups leading the Issue One ballot initiative would not stop their efforts at effectively passing one of the most sweeping, horror-inducing abortion amendments in the nation. Their suggestion, however, was taunted and memory-holed by the corporate media, which falsely but deliberately accused them of spreading “misinformation.”

The Ohio Capital Journal published several articles shortly before the November election claiming voters who check “yes” on the amendment were simply reaffirming the state’s status quo 22-week abortion law by rejecting a “controversial” six-week ban “with no exceptions for rape or incest” from taking effect.

In reality, the change to the state constitution opened the door for abortion activists to legally protest any attempt to rein in abuses in abortion, contraception, assisted reproductive technology, the radical trans-ing of children, and any of the other “rights” that are encompassed by the ambiguous amendment.

When it comes to advancing their abortion-for-all activism, Democrats’ lies and deceptions abound. They don’t merely rely on vague language and undefined terms in confusing ballot initiatives to achieve their abortion at any time for any reason agenda. With the help of their allies in the corrupt corporate media, leftists eager to enshrine abortion in state constitutions overlook voters’ strong opposition to making that fatal practice unlimited to continue undoing protections.

Pro-life laws and limits save lives. Yet, several states, including Florida, are subjecting themselves to the same deceptive ballot initiatives that passed in Ohio and opened the door for abortion giants to challenge every safeguard.

“Floridians and those who live in states where abortion could be on the ballot should take note of the unfortunate realities playing out in Ohio where out-of-state interests are using Issue 1 to keep women in the dark and further Big Abortion’s profit motives,” Sue Liebel, midwestern regional director for SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement. “Every health and safety protection on the books will be targeted because even the abortion advocates say this lawsuit is only step one. This is the agenda for every abortion amendment and we must fight back to protect women and girls.”

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.