Ohio House budget updates abortion reporting requirements

(A LONG overdue action)

As reported in the Ohio Statehouse Bureau: The Ohio Department of Health produces the Ohio Abortion Report each year that gives information about abortions being performed during a calendar year. A new provision in the Ohio House budget would expand the information collected and make it available continuously. But abortion rights supporters suspect the provision is unconstitutional.

The budget would require the Ohio Department of Health to establish an online dashboard. Information on abortions should be updated monthly.

The scope of the information required would also be far greater than it is now. It would require providers to list each patient’s education level, zip code, number of previous abortions, menstrual history, Rh factor in blood, and the method of contraception used at the time of conception, if any.

Cincinnati Right to Life Executive Director Laura Strietmann adds, “The reporting system for abortions in Ohio is flawed. The system is so slow, by the time we receive the tragic numbers of preborn slaughters for the previous year, 9 months of the new year have passed. During the 2020 pandemic Ohio was able to report Covid stats daily, so monthly abortions stats should be pretty simple to calculate. We know the abortion industry knows their profit each week and should be able to report the executions that are making them millions of dollars in our state.”

As a reminder, Ohio is now a tourist destination for abortions. Instead of sporting events, amusement parks, zoos, and other Ohio attractions, people travel here to kill their preborn child.

Cincinnati Right to Life’s full-time Sidewalk Advocates for Life count over 600 vehicles entering the Auburn Avenue facility of death each week. Half of the cars have out of state license plates with Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee leading the abortion tourists coming to Cincinnati.

The Buckeye State has become the “Bloodbath State.”

In March of this year, Planned Parenthood’s research arm, the Guttmacher Institute, released a policy analysis making the case that states should cease mandating the reporting of abortion data. Guttmacher argues that states should instead move to a model where the reporting of abortion data is voluntary.

As shared by Dr. Michael New, in the policy analysis, Guttmacher acknowledges that abortion data can be “vital in shaping public policies to improve reproductive health access and outcomes.” However, it states that mandated data collection could be used to “harass” or “prosecute” abortion facilities or women who obtain abortions.

In Ohio, Jaime Miracle, deputy director of Abortion Forward, said Ohio already has some of the most medically unnecessary and burdensome reporting requirements in the nation.

“What this legislature is doing is forcing healthcare staff to comply with even more medically unnecessary regulations, meaning fewer appointments for patients,” Miracle said. “No one wants to wait longer to see a doctor because they’re busy completing extra paperwork to satisfy some politician’s agenda in the Ohio legislature.”

“If abortion is so “normal” and is “healthcare” then why is the big abortion lobby so afraid of sharing how many preborn children are dismembered and poisoned in Ohio and other states?” adds Strietmann.

Margie Christie, current Executive Director of Dayton RTL and retired Executive Director of Cincinnati RTL, Paula Westwood, both advocated for many years on behalf of an updated Ohio abortion reporting requirement.

On April 9, Wednesday afternoon, Ohio House lawmakers sent the state budget to the Senate by a 60-39 vote.

It is now up to the Senate to determine if these provisions stay in the budget. A vote is likely in the commander by June 12. The budget must be signed by Gov. Mike DeWine by June 30.