COLUMBUS – Abortion showdowns are playing out in state capitols in Ohio and several other states.
An Ohio bill would require doctors prescribing medication abortions, which can be administered up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy, to provide information about a procedure to reverse them.
The measure has the support of Ohio Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization.
“Abortion pill reversal is not true medicine. This is legislation that interferes with standard practice and inappropriately puts politicians between doctors and patients. There are no scientific studies that show abortion pill reversal is effective or that it is safe for women or the fetus. Requiring physicians to give patients inaccurate information is harmful to women and to Ohio. We should be focusing on policies that improve the health and lives of people in our state, rather than those that ignore real data in favor of an extreme ideology.” – Rep. Beth Liston (D-Dublin)
But, the American College Of Obstetricians and Gynecologists oppose it, saying the procedures are unproven.
Rep. Beth Liston, of Dublin, a physician, says the bill “is harmful to women and to Ohio.”
“There are no scientific studies that show abortion pill reversal is effective or that it is safe for women or the fetus,” she said in a statement released Tuesday.
Three states, including Georgia, have joined Ohio in banning abortions at the first sign of a fetal heartbeat, which can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
Alabama legislators, meanwhile, have given final approval to a ban on nearly all abortions, and if the Republican governor signs the measure, the state will have the strictest abortion law in the country.
The legislation would make performing an abortion a felony at any stage of pregnancy with almost no exceptions. The passage Tuesday by a wide margin in the GOP-led Senate shifts the spotlight to Gov. Kay Ivey, who is opposed to abortion but has not said whether she’ll sign the bill.