An Ohio county judge struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban on Thursday, after finding the restriction unconstitutional in light of a pro-abortion ballot measure that was approved by voters last November.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge Christian Jenkins granted a permanent injunction on Thursday, formally tossing out the state’s law prohibiting abortionists from performing the procedure on patients after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
“Ohio voters have spoken. The Ohio Constitution now unequivocally protects the right to abortion,” Jenkins wrote.
The law was passed in 2019 but did not take effect until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. After it was in effect for less than three months, Jenkins stepped in and temporarily blocked the law from being enforced in response to lawsuits from abortion providers.
Before the ballot initiative passed last November with 57 percent of the vote, opponents of the measure warned that it would effectively outlaw any restrictions on abortion and other procedures that involve reproduction, including gender-transition surgeries. Pro-lifers also warned that the measure would remove parental-consent and -notification requirements for minors who undergo the procedures.
The amendment includes vague language about prohibiting any law that “directly or indirectly” would “burden” or “interfere” with “reproductive decisions.”
The ruling on Thursday comes two months after a Franklin County common pleas judge temporarily blocked several state laws that mandated a 24-hour waiting period before receiving an abortion. The judge in that case, David C. Young, said the pro-abortion ballot initiative was “clear and unambiguous” and that the plaintiffs had clearly demonstrated “that the challenged statutes burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, and discriminate against patients in exercising their right to an abortion and providers for assisting them in exercising that right.”
However, Ohio attorney general Dave Yost said he would appeal Young’s ruling.