Ohio's new abortion law does not have an exemption for pregnant children or mental impairment.
The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau reported, Ohio's Republican lawmakers who control the state have no plans to change that.
There is much debate among doctors, lawyers, and lawmakers about which circumstances an abortion could be administrated if the pregnancy presented "a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function" or death of the pregnant person.
(Amelia Robinson. “Ohio girls are raped into motherhood. After rape at OSU, she was nearly one.” The Columbus Dispatch. July 21, 2022.)
The new abortion law took effect despite public sentiment for legal abortions.
In May 2022, Pew Research found, overall, a clear majority of adults say abortion should be legal if the pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health (73%) or if the pregnancy is the result of rape (69%). A smaller majority says abortion should be legal if the baby is likely to be born with severe disabilities or health issues (53%).
Democrats’ attitudes about these circumstances follow a similar pattern. At least eight-in-ten say abortion should be legal if the pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health (84%) or the pregnancy is the result of rape (83%). A slightly smaller majority says the same about abortion if the baby is likely to be born with severe disabilities (68%).
Republicans are more divided on these questions: While a clear majority say abortion should be legal if a woman’s life is endangered (62%), a slightly smaller share say the same about a pregnancy that is the result of rape (56%). Republicans are far more divided on abortion if the baby is likely to be born with disabilities or health problems: 38% say abortion should be legal in this circumstance, while 29% say it should be illegal and 31% say it depends.
(“America’s Abortion Quandary.” Pew Research Center. May 6, 2022.)
A poll by USA TODAY Network Ohio/Suffolk University in late May found about 53% of Ohioans polled by said they wanted to protect abortion rights here. Another 39% wanted the Ohio Legislature to restrict access to the procedure. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
The partisan divide was stark: 85% of Democrats backed abortion rights compared to 21% of Republicans.
(Greg Gatlin. “Poll Shows Ohio Voters Want Abortion Rights Protected.” https://www.suffolk.edu/news-features/news/2022/06/06/15/41/suffolk-poll-shows-ohio-voters-want-abortion-rights-protected. Suffolk University/Cincinnati Enquirer. June 05, 2022.)
Brief History
In late June 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortions nationwide, Ohio outlawed abortions for people who have been pregnant for six weeks or longer. Soon after, in July, several news outlets reported that Ohio’s law forced a 10-year-old girl who had gotten pregnant by rape to travel to the neighboring state of Indiana to legally terminate the pregnancy.
Many people, including politicians and members of the media, questioned the veracity of the story. About a week after the story went viral, a 27-year-old man was jailed and charged with raping the girl, according to reputable news outlets.
As news of that arrest circulated online, a rumor surfaced claiming that Ohio’s abortion law would have actually allowed the girl to legally terminate the pregnancy in that state – in other words, she supposedly could have avoided the trip to Indiana for an abortion. For instance, Glenn Greenwald, a journalist and lawyer, stated in a tweet thread, “Ohio has a rape exception in its law…”
As news of that arrest circulated online, a rumor surfaced claiming that Ohio’s abortion law would have actually allowed the girl to legally terminate the pregnancy in that state — in other words, she supposedly could have avoided the trip to Indiana for an abortion. For instance, Glenn Greenwald, a journalist and lawyer, stated in a tweet thread, “Ohio has a rape exception in its law…”
Glenn Greenwald
An ICE official told Fox the arrested suspect is a Guatemalan immigrant in the US illegally, likely shifting the focus of the story. Also, Ohio has a rape exception in its law so that part is still unclear.
But that was not the case. Ohio’s law banning abortions for people who have been pregnant for six weeks or longer did not make an exception for rape victims, as of July 2022.
(Nur Ibrahim. “Does Ohio’s Abortion Ban Have a Rape Exception?” https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ohio-abortion-law-no-rape-exception/. July 18, 2022.)
No Exceptions – Judging Morality With Politics
Recent Ohio legislation banning abortion falls clearly along political lines. The GOP defends a legal regime that they helped to craft.
Slate Senior Writer Mark Joseph Stern explains …
“By the time it shook out that the GOP is the anti-abortion party – which was not fully clear until 1980 – you still have Republican politicians saying they’re for the rape and incest exception. That continues from Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump. If you ask Republican politicians whether they support a nationwide ban, the answer is always yes, but with a rape exception …
“Then, some groups like Ohio Right to Life claimed that the abortion 'only added to the pain and violence perpetuated against a victim.' This idea is relatively new …
“The movement started focusing on the idea that abortion hurt women more in the ’90s. Early on, in the ’60s, there was lots of other victim-blaming. Lots of anti-abortion thinkers would say: Well, women are going to just cry rape. Women are going to have consensual sex, get pregnant, and invoke a rape exception. Henry Hyde [author of the amendment limiting federal funding of abortion] famously complained that if women claim rape, no other accountability is asked of them. They don’t have to prove it. So there is a distrust of women that runs through a lot of this. And also a sense that if there’s a contrast between a fetus and a woman as to who’s more innocent and more deserving, it’s always going to be the fetus.
“Then there was this conviction, based on an argument going back to the 19th century, that people couldn’t get pregnant unless the sex was consensual. They would say that was true even of incest. So as soon as the new anti-abortion movement exists, there’s very strong opposition to rape and incest exceptions. Support for these exceptions was a strategic development that came later.”
(Mark Joseph Stern. “The Real Reason Why the GOP Is Rushing to Pass Abortion Bans Without Exceptions for Rape.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/10-year-old-girl-rape-ohio-abortion-incest-life-exceptions.html. Slate. July 19, 2022.)
After Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2018, you see this explosion of laws without rape or incest exceptions. At the time, this felt quite sudden to a lot of people. This generation of laws – the so-called “heartbeat bills” – ban abortion at six weeks, and most did not have rape or incest exceptions. Stern says, “I think that’s a direct response to the changing of the Supreme Court. Previously, Republican legislators had a sense that pushing too hard on unpopular things like abolishing rape or incest exceptions could make it harder to reverse Roe.”
In the face of horror stories like the 10-year-old girl rape victim in Ohio, the anti-abortion movement has doubled down. Jim Bopp, general counsel for the National Right to Life, said that the Ohio girl should have been forced to carry her rapist’s fetus, telling Politico: “She would have had the baby, and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child.”
Other anti-abortion groups condemned the girl’s abortion as “violence perpetuated against her.” And John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, acknowledged that abortion bans may cause doctors to delay care for miscarriage patients until complications arise.
Stern concludes:
“The GOP did change. It became much more beholden to the anti-abortion movement and much less concerned about competition because of a combination of political polarization, gerrymandering, limits on access to the vote. These are essentially one-party states. Republican politicians aren’t worried these positions will be unpopular with voters because voters wouldn’t elect Democrats anyway.”
(Mark Joseph Stern. “The Real Reason Why the GOP Is Rushing to Pass Abortion Bans Without Exceptions for Rape.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/10-year-old-girl-rape-ohio-abortion-incest-life-exceptions.html. Slate. July 19, 2022.)
Choice For Governor
In Ohio, we will have a choice. Will voters decide to make abortion the major issue in the state? Time will tell. We do know that women are sure to be a powerful voice in the election for governor.
Former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, now the Democratic nominee for governor, said if voters choose her over DeWine she'll seek to have abortion rights written into the Ohio Constitution.
Whaley has made this issue central to her campaign, and she said if she wins she will immediately start putting together a ballot initiative to codify Roe into the Ohio constitution.
"This legislation is further proof that Gov. DeWine and the extremists in the legislature will stop at nothing until all abortions are illegal in our state," Whaley said in a news release.
"Ohio women deserve to be able to make these choices between themselves, their families, and their doctors – without politicians like Mike DeWine inserting themselves in the process. Not only does this bill take away a woman's right to make decisions about her own body and future, but it will hurt the economic future of our state."
(Jim Gaines. “Ohio's proposed abortion ban: Chances of passage likened to previous abortion bills.” Journal-News. Hamilton, Ohio. July 13, 2022.)
the lost women
Lucille Clifton - 1936-2010
i need to know their
names
those women i would have walked with
jauntily the way men
go in groups
swinging their arms, and the ones
those sweating
women whom i would have joined
after a hard game to chew the
fat
what would we have called each other laughing
joking into
our beer? where are my gangs,
my teams, my mislaid sisters?
all
the women who could have known me,
where in the world are their
names?
From Next: New Poems by Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1989 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with permission of BOA Editions Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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