A Franklin County judge has agreed to stop Ohio’s 2021 law requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a patient can get an abortion. The ruling came in the wake of a lawsuit arguing the law is unconstitutional after a reproductive rights amendment passed last fall.
In a 26-page decision, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge David Young wrote that the five abortion clinics represented by the ACLU of Ohio had a strong chance of winning on the case and that the plaintiffs “suffer harm every day when their constitutional rights are violated.”
Read the verdict here.
The state had argued that the clinics and doctors who brought the lawsuit did not have standing to sue, but Young said the change in the law gives them that standing because they are helping people who are exercising their constitutional rights.
The state also argued that the waiting period does not violate the new amendment, saying doctors’ requirements to release information and patients’ requirements to wait 24 hours are important components of informed consent. But Young cited analysis of the issue by Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, who said the Reproductive Rights Amendment would make it harder for the state to uphold many abortion-related laws. And he wrote that the amendment’s language was “clear and unambiguous.”
Yost confirmed that the state will appeal the decision. His office said in a statement, “We have heard the voices of the people and recognize that reproductive rights are now protected in our Constitution. However, we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision that requiring physicians to obtain informed consent and wait 24 hours before performing an abortion is burdensome. These are essential safeguards designed to ensure that women receive appropriate care and make voluntary decisions. These measures were consistently upheld in Roe v. Wade. We intend to appeal this ruling.”
No hearings are scheduled, so the waiting period is blocked indefinitely.
This is one of several cases that have been in court since Issue 1 was passed last fall, as Republicans who dominate the legislature have made no attempt to overturn existing reproductive rights laws. Next week, a Hamilton County judge is expected to issue his ruling on Ohio’s ban on abortions after six weeks. The law banning the prescription of abortion-inducing drugs via telemedicine is also being challenged.
