Did you know that the Ohio legislature introduced a bill in 2006 that was intended to eliminate access to legal abortion in Ohio?

In 2005 and 2006, Ohio legislators considered a bill that would have banned abortion throughout pregnancy without any exceptions – even for rape or incest, to preserve a woman's health, or to save her life.  In addition to criminalizing performing any abortion in the state of Ohio, the bill even attempted to eliminate Ohio women's ability to seek medical care in other states, by outlawing transporting or assisting a woman to obtain an abortion in another state.  This would mean that a husband, a mother or any other person who accompanies a woman could have faced 15 years in prison for providing assistance to a pregnant woman in need.

Rep. Tom Brinkman, the main sponsor of this bill, admitted that this bill was meant to provide a case to overturn Roe, and that supporters try to enact unconstitutional legislation to push their extremist agenda all the way to the Supreme Court.  According to Brinkman, "The passage of House Bill 228 would no doubt end in the courts and begin a long journey to the United States Supreme Court where it will hopefully result in the end of Roe."

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio fought this bill as soon as it was introduced in the Ohio State House.  According to Kellie Copeland, Executive Director, "The vast majority of Ohioans support women's freedom and privacy, and this ban flies in the face of these fundamental values. The same far-right legislators pushing this ban on abortion have failed to support a commonsense bill, The Ohio Prevention First Act, that would make birth control, including the 'morning-after' pill, more affordable and accessible, ensure that our young people get honest, realistic sex education, and improve access to family-planning services."  Fortunately anti-choice attempts to move the ban forward in the legislature were thwarted, and the bill did not reach the floor of either chamber of the state legislature.

H.B. 228, 2006 Leg., 126th Sess. (Oh. 2006); Aaron Marshall, House Panel Debates Ohio Abortion-Ban Bill; Emotions Run High as Foes Square Off, Plain Dealer, June 14, 2006, at B1; Press Release, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, South Dakota Banned Abortion, Is Ohio Next? (May 25, 2006).