In 2012, anti-choice groups got a heartbeat bill introduced in the Ohio legislature in an attempt to make abortion technically illegal. The bill was passed in the Ohio House but died in the Senate. This week the heartbeat bill was reintroduced by the same man who introduced it in 2012, Republican state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann of Napoleon. This time they used the celebrity Quiverfull proponents The Duggar Family as props at the press conference. Even after Ohio just enacted some of the most restrictive regulations on abortion in the country, the forced-birth people are back again for more restrictions.
A bill that would ban abortions in Ohio once a fetal heartbeat is detected is back, but it faces an uncertain fate in a legislature that already has handed the anti-abortion movement major victories this year.
The two-year state budget signed into law in June by GOP Gov. John Kasich included new restrictions to make it more difficult to get an abortion in Ohio and all but impossible in some areas of the state.
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis declined to state a position on the heartbeat bill, but he praised recent victories: “Over the past few months, we have passed five pro-life laws and closed three abortion clinics in the state of Ohio.”
Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said legislative Republicans already have done enough to thwart the rights of women.
“Here we go again. Just one month ago, Gov. Kasich enacted one of the worst anti-choice laws in the country,” Copeland said. “That legislation is forcing the closure of abortion-care facilities, defunds family-planning providers and tells doctors how they have to practice medicine.”
As I noted last year about the previous bill:
Yes the ‘heartbeat’ bill was created to “put an end to any of the procedures”. The ‘heartbeat bill’ is about ending legal abortion not saving lives. Abortion won’t end it will just go back to the alleys and secret clinics where women in need will roll the dice and hopefully not be butchered or die during the procedure.
Ohio Anti-Abortion ‘Heartbeat Bill’ Is About Ending Legal Abortion Not Saving Lives
The Columbus Dispatch doesn’t think the bill will get anywhere but I would be wary of thinking it might die in the Senate again.
*Side Note* Notice that no one prevents the Duggars from having as many children as they want yet they want to force themselves and their beliefs into the same decision of other people.
*Note* Reader Charlotte M. sent me a note saying the “American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes all these bills as (1) dangerous to patients and (2) undue interference in the patient-physician relationship.” You can read their objection in the press release titled “Ob-Gyns Issue Policy Opposing Legislative Interference“.
