Ohio heartbeat bill fails by one vote

An Ohio bill protecting unborn babies with a detectable heartbeat failed Thursday after Senate Republicans came just one vote short of the 20 needed to override Gov. John Kasich’s veto of the measure. The outgoing Republican governor has vetoed the same bill twice in the last two years, arguing it would be declared unconstitutional. The Senate voted 19-13 to override Kasich’s veto of the bill, which would have protected babies as early as six weeks’ gestation. The Ohio House earlier successfully overruled the veto with exactly the 60 votes required.

Senate President Larry Obhof, a Republican, indicated the fight for the heartbeat bill isn’t over, dismissing the cheers that broke out in the Senate chamber after the vote was announced. “I think that the celebration for some of the people in here will be short-lived,” he told reporters. “We will have a supermajority that is pro-life in both chambers in the next General Assembly—we’re getting sworn in in less than two weeks, and we have a governor coming in who has said he would sign that bill.” Gov.-elect Mike DeWine, also a Republican, will be sworn in on Jan. 14.