COLUMBUS – Abortion-rights proponents have gone to the Ohio Supreme Court to stop the state’s “Heartbeat Law” from being enforced.
The measure, passed by lawmakers and signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019, prohibits abortions following the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy. A violation of this law by a provider is a fifth-degree felony.
The law was put on hold by a federal judge who lifted the injunction against its implementation Friday, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and returning the ability to regulate abortions to the states.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and a law firm representing eight Ohio abortion filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court Wednesday asking the justices to order state officials not to enforce the ban and to declare in unconstitutional.
The suit claims the law poses an “insurmountable” obstacle to abortion access, restricting care to such an early stage of pregnancy that most patients do not even know they are pregnant and argues that it is currently inflicting serious and irreparable harm on Ohioans, especially lower-income and minority residents.