Ohio judge blocks ‘heartbeat’ abortion ban, criticizes Republican attorney general

An Ohio judge permanently struck down the state’s ban on abortion after about six weeks on Thursday and criticized its Republican attorney general for attempting to circumvent the will of Ohioans who voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.

Judge Christian Jenkins of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas in Cincinnati said the Republican-backed 2019 state law would interfere with women’s ability to receive abortions and discourage doctors from performing them, in violation of a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year.

The office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, acknowledged that the ban itself could not stand in light of the ballot initiative, but had argued that 14 other provisions of the state law should be upheld.

Those included requirements to have doctors check for fetal heartbeats before performing abortions, inform patients seeking abortions when their fetuses are viable, and have patients wait 24 hours after seeing a doctor before undergoing an abortion.

Jenkins said those provisions were unconstitutional because the ballot measure’s broad wording prohibits any burden on the ability to exercise the right to have an abortion.

He noted that when the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overruled its landmark Roe v. Wade precedent that had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide, it said it was returning the issue of abortion to individual states and that “women are not without electoral or political power.”

“Ohio’s Attorney General evidently didn’t get the memo,” wrote Jenkins, a Democrat who was elected to his post in 2021. “Unlike the Ohio Attorney General, this court will uphold the Ohio Constitution’s protection of abortion rights.”

Bethany McCorkle, a spokeswoman for Yost, said the attorney general has 30 days to review the “very long, complicated decision” and decide whether to appeal.