An Ohio House bill introduced June 11 would add more restrictions to obtaining a legal abortion in Ohio, and some of the requirements may force doctors to provide medically inaccurate information.
With an exception for medical emergencies but not rape or incest,
House Bill 200
would increase the waiting period on abortions from 24 to 48 hours.The bill would also force doctors to give patients, verbally and in writing, a slew of warnings 48 hours before an abortion procedure.
Among the requirements, doctors would have to explain medical risks that the legislation claims are associated with abortion, including infection, hemorrhage, cervical or uterine perforation, infertility, risks to subsequent pregnancies and the increased risk of breast cancer.
The bill would also require doctors to provide a description of fetal development with colored photographs and “the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics of the embryo or fetus at that age.”
As part of the bill, pregnant women seeking an abortion would be forced to get an ultrasound two days before a procedure. During the process, doctors would have to provide a verbal description of the ultrasound, including whether there’s an audible heartbeat, and a written and verbal description of whether the pregnancy is viable. If the pregnancy is not viable, doctors would be required to tell patients that a miscarriage is likely even if the patient doesn’t get an abortion.
The most extensive research has found that, barring rare complications, induced abortions are not linked to the medical risks listed in the bill.
Regarding infertility, the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists cited four studies, concluding that, “Published studies strongly suggest that infertility is not a consequence of uncomplicated induced abortion. There are small discrepancies among studies, but none of these studies was of sufficient power to detect a small association."
The American Cancer Society has a
page on its website
dedicated to abortion and breast cancer, which claims, “The largest, and probably the most reliable, study on this topic was done during the 1990s in Denmark, a country with very detailed medical records on all its citizens. … After adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors, the researchers found that induced abortion(s) had no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer. The size of this study and the manner in which it was done provide good evidence that induced abortion does not affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.”
House Bill 200 must first work through committee before it gets a full vote from the House. Its chances of passing the 99-person chamber are so far are unclear.
The bill was introduced by State Rep. Ron Hood, a Republican from Ashville, and co-sponsored by 34 of his Republican colleagues. Among them are several state representatives from the Cincinnati area: Louis Terhar, Louis Blessing, Ron Maag, Wes Retherford and Peter Stautberg.
Both chambers of the General Assembly recently passed budget bills that include anti-abortion policies. On April 18, the Republican-controlled Ohio House
passed a budget bill
that defunds Planned Parenthood and funds pro-abstinence, anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.
On June 6, the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate
passed another budget bill
that includes the Ohio House measures. The Ohio Senate also added provisions that ban abortion clinics from establishing transfer agreements with public hospitals and allow the state health director to shut down abortion clinics that don’t have transfer agreements.
Both chambers are currently reconciling their budget bills through a conference committee, which should produce a final version of the budget for the governor. Gov. John Kasich must approve a budget before a June 30 deadline.
Correction: This story originally said there are no exceptions for medical emergencies, but there is an exception for medical emergencies in the bill. The story has been updated and corrected.
