Lawsuit filed against Ohio amendment for ‘overbroad’ grouping of abortion, miscarriage treatment, and more

Members of Cincinnati Right to Life have filed a lawsuit to prevent an Ohio constitutional amendment that would affirm a right to abortion in the state’s constitution from reaching voters in November.

According to the Daily Signal, Margaret DeBlase and John Giroux filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court arguing that because the proposed amendment covers multiple issues, it should be broken up into multiple amendments. Should the lawsuit succeed, it would be a setback for abortion advocates, who are trying to secure enough signatures to place the amendment on a November ballot.

Called the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety, the proposed amendment is wide-ranging, saying “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.”

Per the legal challenge, abortion and the continuation of pregnancy are inherently different than fertility treatments, contraception, and miscarriage care, and should be treated as separate issues.

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Attorney Curt Hartman, who is representing DeBlase and Giroux in their suit, told the Daily Signal that per Ohio law, “any proposed constitutional amendment can only propose what [the law] characterize[s] as one proposal.”

Hartman also pointed out that the proposed amendment states “abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability,” but that “in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

“We think it is very overbroad and the [Ohio] Ballot Board never considered, never really addressed what exactly is being proposed by this, and they had no debate, no discussion,” he said.

Abortion supporters spoke out against the lawsuit.

“No one has ever asked the Ohio Supreme Court to reverse an Ohio Ballot Board’s unanimous vote affirming that an amendment comports with Ohio’s single subject rule,” argued Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights in a prepared statement. “The extremists who filed this action are attempting to circumvent the law and the constitution in a desperate attempt to prevent the people of Ohio from voting on the reproductive freedom amendment.”

Hartman said it is likely the court will rule on the lawsuit in May.

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