Ohio court rulings shift the abortion landscape

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: voters in 10 states are preparing to cast ballots on abortion-related amendments.

Last year, voters in Ohio placed a right to abortion in their state constitution.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And that’s led to legal challenges that have placed holds on pro-life regulations even though they’ve not yet been struck down.

Here’s WORLD life beat reporter Leah Savas on what’s next.

LEAH SAVAS: Joan Stowell took my call last week while sitting in her car across from the only abortion facility in Toledo. She counted the cars of patients at the facility.

JOAN STOWELL: We have, let’s see—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven—we have seven or eight patients here currently.

Stowell is a pro-life sidewalk counselor. For about six years, she’s been coming regularly to the Toledo Women’s Center.

STOWELL: I'm out here every single day that they're open when I don't have needs for my family or my grandchildren or I'm babysitting or whatever.

Stowell says the daily number of patients coming to the facility has been lower recently. She estimates that it’s been more like four to 10 patients in a given day. That number used to be anywhere from six to 25, by her count. But the decrease is not necessarily a good thing.

STOWELL: When they had the 24 hour waiting period, we knew for the most part that the mothers would come back twice.

A recent state court ruling blocked enforcement of a pro-life law. That law required women to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment before getting an abortion. Stowell thinks that’s why she sees less traffic at the abortion center. The decrease doesn’t mean there are fewer abortions happening—it just means more women are only coming once for an abortion.

STOWELL: So that's really hurt because with the 24-hour rule, that really helped us, because we would see the patients the first day that they came, and then we would see them on the second day. So but now most of the patients are coming in one day, and that's it. We're not seeing them again.

Stowell remembers getting a call from one woman years after they met outside of the abortion facility.

STOWELL: I said, “Did you end up going through with your abortion?” She said, “No, I didn't.” And she said, “Thank goodness for that 24 hour waiting period. Because if it wasn't for that waiting period, I probably would have done it that day.” And I said, “So how's it going? How's your baby? And she goes, my baby is almost two now….”

The injunction on Ohio’s 24-hour waiting period law is a direct result of the new right to abortion Ohioans added to the state constitution last year.

After Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Ohio law protected unborn babies with detectable heartbeats for a few weeks. But then a state court challenge put the heartbeat law on hold. And with the new constitutional amendment in effect, pro-lifers have no hope of it being enforceable again. They’re also struggling to maintain the state’s other pro-life protections.

AARON BAER: Unfortunately, the things we predicted in the campaign have really started to come true here in Ohio.

Aaron Baer is president of the Center for Christian Virtue in Ohio.

AARON BAER: They're going after everything you know, common sense regulations that that both parties support.

His group was a part of Protect Women Ohio, the coalition of pro-life organizations that opposed the amendment. They said at the time that pro-abortion groups would use the amendment to invalidate any pro-life law in the state.

AARON BAER: And sure enough, just in the last year, there's been two lawsuits have filed, been filed, and they've successfully blocked in lower courts our laws requiring 24-hour waiting period before abortion, requiring informed consent before abortions. Then another lawsuit was filed that, you know, basically obliterates all of the regulations on the abortion pill.

In August, two judges ruled to block enforcement of all three regulations while the lawsuits are pending. And that’s already having an effect on prescriptions for abortion drugs. Here’s Stowell, talking about the Toledo abortion facility.

JOAN STOWELL: Currently, it's $850 to perform a chemical abortion. For years and years, they did it till 9.6 weeks. But now, within the last two weeks, they switched it to 11.6 weeks that they're performing the abortion, the chemical abortion.

The FDA has only approved use of the abortion pill through 10 weeks gestation. But lower courts don’t get the final word on these laws.

MICHAEL GONIDAKIS: We believe by the middle of 2025 there'll be a case before the Ohio Supreme Court.

Michael Gonidakis is the president of Ohio Right to Life. He said because of these and other anticipated lawsuits, Ohio’s pro-life groups are focusing on the state Supreme Court races.

GONIDAKIS: Yeah, look, everything's at stake. And the most important thing for pro-life voters, and if you're a single issue, pro-life voter is the Ohio Supreme Court.

The seven-member court currently has a slim 3 to 4 Republican majority, but three seats are up for grabs next month. If Democrats—including two incumbents—win all three races, the court will flip to a pro-abortion majority. That would be bad news for the state’s pro-life laws.

An eventual ruling from that court on the new abortion amendment will set the tone for what pro-life laws are and are not allowed in Ohio.

GONIDAKIS: You know, I ask my brothers and sisters in the pro-life movement, when that case, abortion case, gets before the Ohio Supreme Court in 2025—the one I mentioned earlier—do you want a conservative court writing the opinion, or do you want a liberal, pro-abortion court writing the opinion? That's what's on the line.

Next month, voters in other prolife states like Florida and Missouri will be voting on amendments very similar to the one in Ohio. If those pass, pro-lifers there could find themselves reliving this same story.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leah Savas.

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