Ohio court orders a permanent block of heartbeat law

Hamilton County Court of Common Please Judge Christian Jenkins on Thursday ordered Ohio officials not to enforce parts of the law that didn’t deal with adoption or foster care. He ruled that a state constitutional amendment could not be undermined by enforcement of any part the 2019 law. Ohio’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost had argued for some parts of the law to remain in place. His office told WORLD in an email that it was reviewing the court’s complicated 46-page order and that it had 30 days to respond.

How did Ohioans get to this point? Ohio lawmakers passed the heartbeat law in 2019, while Roe v. Wade was still in effect. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision in June 2022, the law went into effect for just a few months before an Ohio court issued a preliminary injunction against its enforcement. Then, during the 2022 midterm elections, Ohio voters chose to enshrine an amendment into the state’s constitution granting women the legal right to abort their unborn babies. In court proceedings following the passage of that amendment, both sides agreed the central portion of the heartbeat law—which prevents abortionists from killing unborn babies with detectable heartbeats—was unconstitutional.

So why was this still in court? Yost argued certain provisions of the law should remain in effect despite the new amendment. Those included a provision requiring abortionists to check for an infant’s heartbeat before killing it, and requiring them to determine the baby’s chances of making it to term if it wasn’t aborted. Another such provision required abortionists to record the reason the abortion was taking place. Pro-abortion advocates argued that all the sections that pertained to abortions in any way should be struck from the state’s legal code.

Dig deeper: Read Leah Savas’ report about Ohio court rulings and how they’ve shifted the abortion landscape in the United States.