The Columbus Dispatch, staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS – Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a 20-week abortion ban while vetoing stricter provisions in a compromise that displeased everyone one way or another.
The Republican governor acted on both proposals Tuesday, the same day they landed on this desk.
While the bill Kasich signed into law would forbid abortions after 20 weeks, the measure he vetoed would have prohibited them at the first sign of a fetal heartbeat, which could come as early as six weeks into pregnancy. It was a measure opposed by even abortion foes because it would almost guarantee a challenge at the U.S. Supreme Court, which currently has only eight members.
“There’s five pro-choice members on the court and there’s three pro-life,” said Mike Gonidakis, of Ohio Right to Life. “We don’t have votes to win and why would we invite a hostile court to make a decision on a pro-life movement?”
In his veto message, Kasich said the so-called “heartbeat bill” was clearly unconstitutional under U.S. Supreme Court rulings and would have resulted in an expensive — and losing — court battle.
“I agree with Ohio Right to Life and other leading, pro-life advocates that Senate Bill 127 (the 20-week ban) is the best, most legally sound and sustainable approach to protecting the sanctity of human life,” Kasich said in a statement.
Kasich opposes abortion rights. The 20-week ban is similar to those now in effect in 15 states. Kellie Copeland with the group NARAL Pro-Choice, which opposed both measures, says there’s nothing to celebrate.
“Governor Kasich is playing games with women’s health,” she said. “He thinks that if he vetoes one measure and signs another, that Ohioans won’t notice that he has enacted the 18th restriction on access to women’s reproductive health care.”
Janet Porter, president of the anti-abortion group Faith2Action and a leading proponent of the “heartbeat bill,” is asking lawmakers to override the veto. She says she asked Republican House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger on Tuesday to bring an override vote to the House floor. Rosenberger’s office hasn’t responded to a message seeking comment.
Some Statehouse Republicans were quick to voice their discontent with the veto.
“I cannot, in good faith and understanding of the child’s gestational development and significance in utero, stand by as we pick and choose which class of unborn children are worth fighting for…For [Kasich] to usurp the power of the legislature and second guess the Supreme Court is shortsighted and nothing short of disrespectful to the process and the many mothers and children who will continue to fall victim to the tragic act of abortion in this nation,” said Rep. Christina Hagan (R-Alliance).
The provisions of the “heartbeat bill” cleared the Republican-led legislature last week after being tucked into separate legislation.
Ohio Right to Life members, who opposed the Heartbeat ban, welcomed what they viewed as the more-reasonable and legal restriction on abortion.
Democrats and other opponents of both measures blasted Kasich for signing the 20-week ban
“Criminalizing certain healthcare services and excluding exceptions for rape and incest just shows how some politicians place partisan politics above the health and autonomy of Ohio women,” House Democratic Whip Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood).
“Ohio’s GOP refuses to recognize women as pain-capable people with their own individual freedom and rights,” said Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent), who called the ban “an insult to all women and a danger to their health and their lives.”
Similar measures elsewhere have faced legal challenges, and detractors in Ohio feared such legislation would lead to a costly fight in the courts. Opponents predicted it would be found unconstitutional if it became law.
With the fetal heartbeat ban folded into another measure, Kasich used his line-item veto to single out and remove the abortion language since it was accompanied by a $100,000 appropriation to create the Joint Legislative Committee on Adoption Promotion. He signed the other portion of the bill, dealing with child-abuse reporting requirements, into law.