Ohio Governor Mike DeWine addresses the legislature and guests during his 2023 State of the State address in the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Tuesday, January 31, 2023.
David Petkiewicz | cleveland.com
COLUMBUS – Gov. Mike DeWine said he wants the General Assembly to make Ohio’s abortion bans stronger to hold up to court review, ahead of a possible abortion-rights amendment vote targeted for November.
DeWine, speaking Thursday from a Columbus elementary school where he observed students learning to read, said Ohio voters need a contrast between existing abortion laws – many of which have been tossed out by the courts due to issues such as vagueness, being overly broad or not explicit in their exceptions – and the constitutional amendment proposal that would generally guarantee the right to an abortion until viability, which is around 22 to 24 weeks.
“What people are going to do when they go in to vote is they’re going to compare that (abortion rights) proposition versus the status quo,” DeWine said. “And what I have said is that I’ve suggested to members of the state legislature is we want to have a bill that protects human life. We also have to have a bill that is sustainable, and that will not be overturned by voters at the polls.”
DeWine declined to expound on whether he wants the General Assembly to pass a law making previously enacted abortion bans more explicit or whether lawmakers should pass a new abortion ban altogether that is specific enough to stand up to court scrutiny.
The abortion-rights amendment proposal, “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety,” would guarantee that patients could make decisions about reproduction, including birth control, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy or abortion and miscarriage care until viability. Abortion would be allowed beyond viability in cases in which it’s the “professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
Supporters are gathering signatures across the state. They need 413,000 by July 5 to get on the November ballot. But the amendment also faces several potential new hurdles, including an Ohio Supreme Court case and a plan percolating in the Ohio General Assembly to make it harder to pass state constitutional amendments.
DeWine, a Republican who has been called one of the most “pro-life” governors in Ohio history, opposes the ballot initiative. He said that he thinks most Ohioans also believe the constitutional amendment is too permissive.
“That’s not where the majority of Ohioans are today,” he said.
Abortion has been generally legal in Ohio until 22 weeks since last autumn, when a Cincinnati judge put a hold on the state’s six-week embryonic “heartbeat” law.
The law is on hold until the judge can decide larger constitutional issues in the case, which could take a year or longer. But that litigation has already been subject to an appeal. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals to hear an appeal of the Cincinnati judge’s preliminary injunction. Once Yost’s appeal is resolved, the case in Cincinnati will continue.
It’s not the first time DeWine has asked the legislature to make abortion bans more explicit.
In July, weeks after a 10-year-old Columbus-area rape victim traveled to Indianapolis to get an abortion because her pregnancy was apparently past the legal limit in Ohio, DeWine also called on the law to be clearer, saying “it needs to be able to inform doctors and it needs to be able to inform moms and Ohio citizens on what that law is.”
