Ohio Senate puts end to ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill

In this photo from June 5, a large bal­loon in sup­port of the Heart­beat Bill is shown out­side the state­house in Colum­bus. The bill that would have imposed the most strin­gent restric­tion on abor­tions in the nation met its end Tues­day. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Ann Sanner)

ANN SANNER

JULIE CARR SMYTH

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — The leader of the Ohio Sen­ate put a stop Tues­day to a bill that would have imposed the most strin­gent restric­tion on abor­tions in the nation.

The cham­ber doesn’t plan to vote on the so-called “heart­beat bill” before the end of the leg­isla­tive ses­sion next month, Repub­li­can Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Tom Niehaus said, cit­ing con­cerns the result­ing law might have been found to be unconstitutional.

“I want to con­tinue our focus on jobs and the econ­omy,” Niehaus told reporters. “That’s what peo­ple are con­cerned about.”

The bill pro­posed ban­ning abor­tions after the first fetal heart­beat is detected, as early as six weeks into preg­nancy. It had fiercely divided Ohio’s anti-abortion com­mu­nity, while ener­giz­ing abor­tion rights pro­po­nents who protested against it.

Back­ers hoped the strin­gent nature of the bill would pro­voke a legal chal­lenge with the poten­tial to over­turn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade rul­ing that legal­ized abor­tion up until via­bil­ity, usu­ally at 22 to 24 weeks.

Ohio Right to Life, the state’s largest and old­est anti-abortion group, and many state law­mak­ers expressed con­cern the limit would be uncon­sti­tu­tional — jeop­ar­diz­ing other abor­tion lim­its in Ohio and expand­ing access to legal abortions.

The mea­sure ini­tially had stalled in both cham­bers as lead­ers sought legal advice as to whether the bill could with­stand a court chal­lenge. It passed the House in June 2011 and had remained pend­ing in the Sen­ate since.

Niehaus, who is leav­ing the Sen­ate at the end of the year due to term lim­its, said a num­ber of fac­tors went into his deci­sion not to bring the bill to a floor vote dur­ing the lame-duck ses­sion. He cited lin­ger­ing con­sti­tu­tional con­cerns but would not elab­o­rate on other issues he had with the measure.

Sup­port­ers had offered var­i­ous ver­sions of the pro­posal in recent weeks, Nei­haus said. And a new draft had been brought to him as recently as Tues­day morning.

Niehaus wouldn’t spec­u­late on whether the bill would have cleared the Sen­ate had he decided to bring it to the floor for a vote.

He said he respected the views of his Repub­li­can col­leagues, who hold 23 of 33 seats in the Sen­ate. But, he said, “Ulti­mately it’s my deci­sion not to move this bill in lame duck.”

The heart­beat bill’s demise Tues­day marked the end of one of the nois­i­est lob­by­ing efforts in recent state memory.

One crowded House hear­ing fea­tured what sup­port­ers called “the state’s youngest leg­isla­tive wit­ness,” an in utero fetus. Ultra­sounds were per­formed at the hear­ing on two women who were early in their preg­nan­cies, so leg­is­la­tors could see and hear the fetal hearts. Peo­ple whose moth­ers had sought abor­tions that failed — labeled “abor­tion sur­vivors” — were fea­tured at another hearing.

Pro­po­nents deliv­ered bou­quets of red heart-shaped bal­loons and teddy bears to law­mak­ers, flew ban­ners over the State­house and even­tu­ally turned to angry full-page ads in the Colum­bus newspaper.

Oppo­nents also grew vocal. They ral­lied at the State­house dur­ing key votes, argu­ing the leg­is­la­tion could endan­ger the lives of women, forc­ing them to seek the pro­ce­dure in unhealthy circumstances.

Janet Fol­ger Porter, pres­i­dent of Ohio-based Faith2Action and the bill’s cham­pion, said she was con­fi­dent the leg­is­la­tion would be upheld in court.

“This is the clos­est we have ever been to pro­tect­ing babies with beat­ing hearts,” she said when it passed the House. “When this passes, it will be the most pro­tec­tive leg­is­la­tion in the nation.”

Porter led a charge to line up a host of high-profile sup­port­ers. They included Cincin­nati physi­cian Jack Willke, a for­mer pres­i­dent of the National Right to Life Com­mit­tee and founder of the Inter­na­tional Right to Life Fed­er­a­tion, and Phil Bur­ress, whose Cit­i­zens for Com­mu­nity Val­ues led the charge to ban gay mar­riage, among others.

But Ohio Right to Life’s then-executive direc­tor, Mike Gonidakis, called it “the right idea at the wrong time.”

Bat­tling neg­a­tive pub­lic­ity over its neu­tral­ity on the bill, his chap­ter was selected to launch a 50-state effort to pass informed-consent bills tied to the fetal heart­beat, requir­ing that preg­nant women see and hear the rhythm before agree­ing to an abortion.

Sup­port­ers of that effort said sta­tis­tics show women exposed to the fetal heart­beat are far less likely to go through with an abortion.

State Sen. Shan­non Jones, a Spring­boro Repub­li­can, said she thought the bill would have passed in the Senate.

“I am hope­ful and con­fi­dent it will come up in the next Gen­eral Assem­bly,” she said.

That’s what the head of one abor­tion rights group feared Tuesday.

“We don’t believe for a sec­ond that this threat is over — per­haps delayed, but not over,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio direc­tor Kel­lie Copeland.

Posted by AP News on Nov 27 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.