Judge halts law requiring burial or cremation for aborted fetuses. Ohio cannot start enforcing a mandate that fetal remains be eithe...
Judge halts law requiring burial or cremation for aborted fetuses. Ohio cannot start enforcing a mandate that fetal remains be either buried or cremated, a court ruled on Monday. The law was set to take effect today.
Now, Hamilton County Judge Alison Hatheway has temporarily blocked enforcement of the fetal remains measure (Senate Bill 27), which had been signed into law by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine at the end of December. Under the law, Ohio women who received surgical abortions would be asked to choose whether the fetal remains are buried or cremated; if they chose not to make a decision, it would be left up to abortion clinics.
Abortion clinics and their staff who circumvent the rule could face punishment including license suspension, fines, or being charged with a first-degree misdemeanor crime.
But the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood challenged the new abortion mandate in a lawsuit filed against the Ohio Department of Health and state officials on behalf of several abortion providers. The suit asked that penalties for providers be halted, since "compliance is impossible due to the Ohio Department of Health's failure to establish or issue necessary rules and regulations. The law takes effect on April 6, but the state is not charged with issuing rules until July 5."
"The absence of regulations leaves Ohio abortion providers in an impossible situation," the groups and their allies said in a statement. "Despite the fact that we are in the midst of a global pandemic and there are vast and numerous public health tasks before the Ohio Department of Health, the State passed this frivolous and medically unnecessary law. We simply want reassurance that we won't be punished for our inability to comply with a directive that doesn't exist."
The fetal remains law is only the latest attempt by Ohio Republicans to add more restrictions to abortion access, points out The Enquirer:
Those have included bans on telemedicine abortions; on dilation and evacuation, or D&E, abortions; on abortions in cases where a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis is a factor; and on all abortions after detection of the first fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy before many women know they are pregnant. Courts have blocked the latter three laws as constitutional challenges proceed.
The ban on the remote prescription of abortion drugs is also being challenged by Planned Parenthood. "With the law set to take effect April 12, the organization asked for immediate relief from the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in a lawsuit filed [last Thursday] against the Ohio Department of Health, the state Medical Board and prosecutors in the state's three largest counties," notes the Associated Press.
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