Foes of Ohio abortion ban at 1st heartbeat get say

JULIE CARR SMYTH

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — Oppo­nents of an Ohio bill ban­ning abor­tions at the first detectable fetal heart­beat told sen­a­tors Tues­day the mea­sure is uncon­sti­tu­tional, rad­i­cal and cruel and would effec­tively ban abor­tion in the state.

Inter­ested par­ties, includ­ing clergy mem­bers and doc­tors, also spoke to a com­mit­tee con­sid­er­ing what’s referred to as the “heart­beat bill,” which would give Ohio the most strin­gent abor­tion limit in the nation.

Kel­lie Copeland, exec­u­tive direc­tor of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, called the bill an out­ra­geous piece of leg­is­la­tion that “aims to roll back the right to pri­vacy and vir­tu­ally elim­i­nate a woman’s right to choose.”

“This rad­i­cal ban would out­law abor­tion at a point in preg­nancy when many women do not yet real­ize they are preg­nant. This mea­sure would vir­tu­ally elim­i­nate access to legal abor­tion in Ohio,” Copeland said in a state­ment pre­pared for the hear­ing. “It does not even pro­vide excep­tions for sur­vivors of rape or incest, to pro­tect the preg­nant woman’s health or in cases of fatal fetal anomalies.”

Dozens filled hall­ways and the hear­ing room to protest the bill dur­ing what was the measure’s sec­ond hear­ing. Many wore pink to con­trast them­selves with pro­po­nents, who wear red to rep­re­sent hearts.

Carla Sokol, a 42-year-old entre­pre­neur from Upper Arling­ton, was among the pink-shirted opponents.

“It’s too strict. Just leave women’s rights alone, that’s my stance,” she said. “I think we’re bright enough to make our own decisions.”

After sit­ting idle for months, the bill debuted in the Sen­ate last week, when pro­po­nents tes­ti­fied. Com­mit­tee and floor votes could come this week. A third hear­ing is sched­uled for Wednesday.

Any Sen­ate changes would need approval from the Ohio House, which passed the bill this spring.

Gary Dougherty, state leg­isla­tive direc­tor of Planned Par­ent­hood Affil­i­ates of Ohio, called the bill cruel and asked leg­is­la­tors to reject it and instead focus on a Sen­ate bill aimed at pre­vent­ing unwanted preg­nan­cies. He also called on them to focus on fix­ing Ohio’s econ­omy and cre­at­ing more jobs.

“Ohio Sen­a­tors should take notice: Women are watch­ing this waste of time and money that is mak­ing a bad sit­u­a­tion worse for Ohio women and fam­i­lies,” he said in a state­ment pre­pared for the hearing.

Den­nis Sul­li­van, a physi­cian, bioethi­cist and board mem­ber of Ohio Right to Life, tes­ti­fied that giv­ing women the oppor­tu­nity to hear or see a fetal heart­beat is essen­tial to her mak­ing an informed choice.

Ohio Right to Life is pro­mot­ing a sep­a­rate bill that requires women to have the option of hear­ing or see­ing the fetal heart­beat before an abor­tion takes place, but the leg­is­la­tion stops short of ban­ning abor­tions at that point. Sen­a­tors were weigh­ing Tues­day whether to amend the bill to look more like the Right to Life version.

Faith2Action Pres­i­dent Janet Porter, the lead pro­moter of the heart­beat bill, com­mended sen­a­tors for hold­ing hear­ings on the con­tro­ver­sial bill — and urged them in a state­ment not to water down the legislation.

The bill “is the best oppor­tu­nity to respect and pro­tect human life we have ever had in this state,” she said. “Of course, we want to make sure we actu­ally pro­tect babies with beat­ing hearts and not just tell peo­ple about them — as some are suggesting.”

Back­ers of the bill hope if it becomes law it would pro­voke a legal chal­lenge and over­turn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade rul­ing that legal­ized abor­tion in the United States.

Copeland crit­i­cized what she called “an effort to put Ohio at the cen­ter of one of our nation’s most con­tentious and costly legal bat­tles, one that is ill con­ceived given the real needs of the state at this time.”

Dougherty reminded leg­is­la­tors that they pledged in their oaths of office to sup­port the U.S. and state constitutions.

About 28,000 women had abor­tions in Ohio last year, accord­ing to the state Health Depart­ment, and Copeland said roughly one in three women has an abor­tion at some point in her life.

“They are the women who raise our chil­dren and who care for our elderly par­ents. They work in our offices and fac­to­ries. They pay taxes, and they vote. They are lead­ers in our churches, our schools and our gov­ern­ment,” she said. “They are the back­bone of our fam­i­lies and our state. And yet the spon­sors of this bill do not trust them.”

She also ques­tioned how many women would be killed or maimed if they sought abor­tions with­out being able to turn to doc­tors or state-inspected clinics.

“Out­law­ing abor­tion will not make it go away,” Copeland said. “My own grand­mother had an ille­gal abor­tion dur­ing The Great Depres­sion. Out­law­ing abor­tion makes it dangerous.”

Posted by AP News on Dec 13 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.