Ohio pro-lifers reckon with the state’s abortion destination status

In 2023, abortionists performed the highest number of abortions in Ohio in a decade as surrounding states enacted protections for unborn babies. That’s according to new data from the Ohio Department of Health. Of the 22,000 abortions that year, abortion centers listed 2,771 performed on women from out-of-state—the highest on record since 2005 and more than twice as many as in 2022.

“It’s just horribly sad,” said Laura Strietmann, executive director of Cincinnati Right to Life. She pointed to the pro-life movement’s long history in Ohio, including its status as the birthplace of Heartbeat International, the largest pro-life pregnancy center organization in the United States. “It just feels very dystopian to know that the culture in Ohio has been so distorted by individuals that are so confused on the life issue,” she said.

The state’s latest abortion numbers largely came before a constitutional amendment that guarantees a right to abortion took effect in December 2023, further solidifying the state’s status as an abortion destination state. In response to the bleak legislative landscape, some pro-lifers in the state are focusing their efforts on engaging with women on the sidewalks outside of abortion facilities and offering them alternatives.

Out of the roughly 100 to 125 vehicles driving into the Cincinnati Planned Parenthood on an average day, about 20 percent or more are from out of state, estimates Cincinnati Right to Life director of community outreach Adam Schad. As many as 15 percent are from Kentucky alone, he said. Part of Schad’s job is to oversee sidewalk counseling at the facility, which is the Ohio abortion facility closest to southern states like Kentucky and Tennessee that protect unborn babies from abortion. He and his team keep track of license plate data using a spreadsheet on a tablet.

“In Cincinnati, there is a bloodbath going on,” said Strietmann.

For a time in 2022, Planned Parenthood facilities in Ohio turned away some women seeking abortions because of the state’s law protecting unborn babies from abortion once they have detectable heartbeats. The measure was in effect for more than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022—until an Ohio judge blocked its enforcement that September. It’s been on hold ever since and is unlikely to take effect again under the new abortion amendment.

Now, it’s business as usual at Planned Parenthood’s Cincinnati Surgical Center. Not all of the people who pull into the parking lot are there for abortions. A Planned Parenthood “health center” at the same address also offers birth control, so-called gender-affirming care, and vasectomies. But the location is the only surgical abortion facility in Hamilton County. By last year’s numbers, it performed an average of about 69 abortions a week. Schad said sidewalk advocates have shown him pictures and videos of the medical waste trucks that arrive weekly to take away large red bins that they believe contain the remains of aborted babies. Advocates also have taken videos of ambulances leaving the facility.

Strietmann said Cincinnati Right to Life is in a prime position to serve the increasing number of women coming to the local Planned Parenthood. She said her group started training sidewalk counselors in the winter of 2022 but paused those efforts in 2023 to focus on combating the ballot measure—making phone calls, going door to door, distributing campaign signs. Since the amendment passed, though, she said they’ve refocused their efforts on their sidewalk ministry.

Schad said more than 30 people go out each week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while the facility is open, standing by the parking lot entrance and exit to hand out gift bags and literature about local resources. He said each day anywhere from 20 to 25 people will stop to talk to them and hear about the resources they have to offer. Strietmann said they’ve hosted online baby showers for women who have chosen to keep their babies. “We send the link out to our supporters with an anonymous registry and have purchased full lists for [the] mom,” she said.

Farther into Ohio, Dayton is the county seat of Montgomery County, which saw the biggest increase in abortions in 2023—reaching a total of 4,283. That’s 1,092 more than in 2022. At the Dayton facility, sidewalk counselors are also seeing more out-of-state license plates.

“There’s West Virginia license plates, Kentucky, Indiana,” said Margie Christie, executive director of Dayton Right to Life. In August 2023, neighboring Indiana’s law protecting unborn babies from abortion took effect. “We got all the Indiana women because we’re about an hour from Richmond, Ind., on the border,” Christie said.

Not all Ohio counties with abortion facilities saw an increase in abortions in 2023. In Lucas County, where Toledo is the county seat, abortions decreased by about 25 percent. Those statistics surprised Joan Stowell, a sidewalk counselor who talks with women outside of the Toledo Women’s Center, the only abortion facility in Lucas County. She thought it seemed like there were more people coming to the abortion facility last year.

She said she’s there most times the abortion facility is open. But counting cars of likely patients doesn’t give a full picture. “We just don’t know how many moms are turning away,” Stowell added.

But in the last few weeks, Stowell has noticed fewer cars arriving at the center. She thinks that’s due to another effect of the pro-abortion amendment.

On the grounds of the new state constitutional right to abortion, abortion businesses in the state filed lawsuits over pro-life laws that regulate abortions. In August, a county judge ruled to temporarily block enforcement of the informed consent and 24-hour waiting period requirements. He did so on the grounds that the laws interfered with the new right of women to access abortions and the right of abortionists to perform them. The next week, a second judge blocked enforcement of laws setting ground rules for distributing the abortion pill. One of the laws prohibited abortionists from using the drugs off-label, or outside of the standards set by the Food and Drug Administration—such as prescribing the drugs for later in pregnancy.

Since then, Stowell has noticed fewer cars of likely patients coming to the facility in a given day—usually four to 10—when it used to be anywhere from six to 25, by her count. She attributes the decrease to the fact that women no longer have to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment in order to have an abortion. They can do it all in one day, giving pro-life sidewalk counselors fewer opportunities to offer them alternatives. In the past, Stowell has connected with moms coming to the abortion facility and has brought some to local pro-life pregnancy centers for ultrasounds. She and other pro-lifers have helped moms pay rent and utilities and have thrown baby showers.

She also noticed on the facility’s website that it had begun offering chemical abortions through 11 weeks gestation, two weeks longer than before the judge blocked enforcement of the law prohibiting off-label use of the abortion pill. The FDA has only approved use of the abortion pill until 10 weeks gestation.

“It’s the wild wild west out there,” said Christie in Dayton. Under the amendment, she said there seems to be less accountability for abortion providers.

With even standard regulations like the 24-hour waiting period and abortion pill requirements on hold, Christie believes pro-life groups have no real legislative future in the state. “Now that it’s in, it’s hard to roll back,” she said of the amendment.

Christie said the focus in Ohio will have to shift from advocating for legislation to serving women facing unexpected pregnancies—a mission she said her own group is ready for, with its existing food pantries and scholarship programs.

“I think that was one of the unfortunate things that happened with Roe v. Wade is we got everything so wrapped up in the law,” said Christie. “And we kind of lost sight of—you know—it’s in the trenches, it’s out on the sidewalks in front of the abortion facilities. It’s in pregnancy centers. I mean, it’s the one-on-one with women, ‘Hey, you can do this’ messaging that’s going to change hearts.”