Ohio legislators have sent two anti-abortion measures to Republican Gov. John Kasich this week: one that would outlaw abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected and another banning abortions midway through pregnancy.
While Kasich opposes abortion, he has expressed concerns about the so-called “Heartbeat Law,” which could prohibit a woman from getting an abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy. Courts have overwhelmingly blocked such laws, and the Supreme Court declined earlier this year to consider reversing those decisions.
But Kasich is more likely to sign the midterm abortion ban, which mirrors more than a dozen 20-week bans passed in other states around the country. Such “pain-capable” laws are based on the idea that abortions shouldn’t occur once a fetus can feel pain, although experts dispute exactly when that is.
Susan B. Anthony List, an abortion-opposing group that has championed 20-week abortion bans, said the Ohio measures recognize the “humanity of the unborn child.”
“Both the heartbeat bill and the pain-capable bill aim to humanize our law,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Abortion rights groups noted that courts have uniformly ruled heartbeat laws to be unconstitutional, since the Supreme Court said in Roe v. Wade that women have the right to get an abortion before the fetus is viable. The National Network of Abortion Funds said abortion foes have been “emboldened” by the victory of President-elect Trump, who says he now opposes abortion.
“Time and time again, the courts have found these restrictions patently unconstitutional, however legislators are hell-bent on passing them to shame people seeking abortions and continue to waste taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars defending them,” the group said.
