Abortion bill goes to governor

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

No topic seemed off limits, including tales of back alleys and coat hangers, as abortion-rights supporters in Ohio fought perhaps the last battle over a twice- vetoed heartbeat abortion ban, which Gov. Mike DeWine has said he will sign.

After nearly 10 years of fighting, Democrats let loose during run-up to final House and Senate approval Wednesday with lessons from slavery, predictions of economic harm, references to the book of Genesis and testimonials about their own rapes. Faith groups brandished banners and made pleas for religious tolerance. An advocate for reproductive rights threatened Republicans with the loss of young voters’ support in 2020.

Opponents vowed to sue.

Ohio’s closely divided politics have slowed the progress of the so-called heartbeat bill as it has caught momentum elsewhere, forcing years of debate in the state where the movement originated.

Five other states have now passed similar bans, two of which have been blocked by the courts. DeWine, who took office in January, has said he will sign the bill, after former GOP Gov. John Kasich vetoed it twice.

State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, shed tears during the debate, exasperated at a bill she said would harm Ohio and its future.

“I’m concerned that we will have companies that will choose not to locate here due to our oppressive laws. I’m concerned that doctors will leave the state of Ohio,” she said. “I’m concerned that our kids are going to leave, that we’re going to lose a large amount of young people who don’t want to live in an oppressive atmosphere.”

Opponents’ protests did nothing to budge a largely closed-mouthed GOP majority on the committee. They appeared confident that prohibiting pregnancy termination once a fetal heartbeat is detected is the best thing for the unborn, for women and for the state. Republicans dominated an 11-7 party-line vote that sent the bill to the full House, which passed it 56-40 Wednesday.

State Rep. Candice Keller, a Middletown Republican, called the legislation “the most compassionate bill we’ve ever passed.”

Keller rejected suggestions that everyone knows someone who has had, or will need, an abortion; that women will continue to have abortions, only unsafely; even that reproductive rights are about women rather than the men who impregnate them and the male doctors who abort those pregnancies.

“If we are really about empowering the women of Ohio and empowering the women of this country, we will begin to tell the truth about the abortion industry and the enormous amount of profit that is made on the backs of women,” she said.

During floor debate Wednesday, two female representatives who said they had been raped, slammed the bill for not making exceptions for rape and incest.

Another female lawmaker said her great-grandmother bled to death in a bathtub trying to self-administer an abortion.

House Health Committee Chairman Derek Merrin criticized those who say abortion drives down health care costs.

His conscience, he said, tells him abortion is wrong.

“My heart, Mr. Speaker, tells me it’s wrong. My understanding of the law and of the constitution tells me it’s wrong. And in the spirit of fairness, equality and justice, I know it’s wrong,” Merrin said.