By Dave Andrusko
Annoying and maddening and frustrating times one hundred.
Judge Michael Barrett of the U.S. Southern District Court has issued a temporarily restraining order preventing Ohio’s ban on the dismemberment of living unborn children from going into effect. Judge Barrett did not go so far as to declare the law unconstitutional but his TRO will last two weeks from last Friday.
As NRL News Today has reported, former Gov. John Kasich signed the Dismemberment Abortion Ban in December 2018.
S.B.145 enjoyed widespread support in the legislature– in the House (62-27] and the Senate (23-9).
Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, told the Cincinnati Inquirer that “it was sad that a federal judge would rule against protecting babies.
“This judge was just soundly rejected last week by the Sixth Circuit,” Gonidakis said, citing another case involving whether Ohio could cut off money to Planned Parenthood. “I am confident his actions today will be rejected yet again.”
Mr. Gonidakis was referring to a decision by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upholding an Ohio law that made entities that perform or promote abortions, such as Planned Parenthood, ineligible to participate in six state-funded health programs. The 11-6 decision, written by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, overturned an April 2018 decision by a three-judge panel of the same circuit that had upheld a 2016 decision by Judge Barrett striking down the law.
Mr. Gonidakis amplified his remarks in a statement.
Ohio Right to Life is frustrated that the law passed with a large consensus in the Ohio Legislature will not go into effect Friday, as planned. The gruesome nature of dismemberment abortions can’t be denied, and this law should be upheld on the same basis that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban was upheld in Gonzalez vs. Carhart. As a society we cannot in good conscious allow a procedure that dismembers a living unborn baby to continue. We don’t stand for that sort of treatment of any other living creature, and we won’t stand for it when its being done to the most vulnerable among us. We trust that pro-life Attorney General Dave Yost’s office will defend our pro-life law well.
Laura Hancock, of Cleveland.com quoted from the lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood which argues “Should the Act be allowed to take effect, Plaintiffs’ patients’ health and access to abortion care will be threatened, and their constitutional rights will be violated.” The suit continues, “Specifically, a ban on D&E procedures imposes an undue burden on women seeking abortions after approximately 15 weeks of pregnancy.”
Ohio is one of ten states that ban this particularly barbaric abortion technique, In chronological order, the other nine are 1.) Kansas (2015) 2. Oklahoma (2015) 3. West Virginia (2016) 4. Mississippi (2016) 5. Alabama (2016) 6. Louisiana (2016) 7. Arkansas (2017) 8. Texas (2017) 9. Kentucky (2018). For more detail, go the NRLC’s State Legislation page.