Researchers say abortion care would become even further out of reach for Ohioans should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn or weaken Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision establishing a nationwide right to an abortion.
This summer, the court will rule on a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. If it is upheld, three proposed abortion bans in Ohio could go into effect.
Payal Chakraborty, a graduate student in the College of Public Health at Ohio State University, led a new study, which found in a worst-case scenario, Ohioans would travel 181 to 279 miles to access an abortion provider.
"Depending on which states ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned, there would be either, like, a seven-times increase in average driving distance or a ten-times increase in average driving distance to get abortion care," Chakraborty reported.
She pointed out they also found Ohioans of color would be more affected by increased driving times than their white counterparts. According to data from February, centers of all Ohio counties were at most 99 miles away from an abortion provider.
A second study evaluated the reproductive-policy environment of states and the number of abortion providers and found an average of 8% of patients left their state for abortion care in 2017.
Mikaela Smith, a research scientist also at Ohio State, said in 12 states, more than 25% of patients crossed state lines, compared with fewer than 4% in 13 other states.
"States that have laws that are more restrictive of abortion tend to have a higher percent of patients leaving," Smith emphasized. "Those states that have more kind of protections around abortion have fewer percent of patients leaving."
Chakraborty added the logistical challenges of an abortion ban in Ohio go beyond extra miles on the road.
"The cost of getting an abortion is greatly increased," Chakraborty explained. "This would require missing work, finding child care, potential overnight stay, travel-related costs in terms of the amount of gas money or needing to access a car, etc."
Meanwhile, Smith noted in a survey last fall, a majority of Ohio women of reproductive age were supportive of legal abortion, which runs counter to restrictive policies being considered.
Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.
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The Alabama House and Senate both passed bills this week that would help people resume in vitro fertilization and provide legal protections for providers and patients in certain cases.
Senate Bill 159 and its companion House Bill 237 passed swiftly despite debates surrounding immunity and personhood.
While this is a positive step that allows families to resume treatments, said Heidi Miller, development manager for the reproductive-justice group Yellowhammer Fund, they're still concerned with the limited timeframe offered by the bills, including the one sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence.
"So, it just feels like a very limited solution to me, and that's our stance as an org, is that it feels like very much like a Band-Aid on open wounds," she said. "And so, that's how we've kind of been looking at those bills, because Sen. Melson's bill similarly would be repealed on April 1, 2025."
Both bills would apply retroactively and be automatically repealed next year, which Miller said could affect families again. This comes after IVF programs around the state stopped offering the service over concerns about legal consequences following a 8-1 state Supreme Court ruling. The court ruled that frozen embryos are protected by the state's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act that protects children, regardless of location.
Acknowledging the temporary nature of the bills, Miller argued that a short-term solution is insufficient for people seeking IVF treatments, which sometimes can take months or years. She said they're urging lawmakers to take further action to safeguard the accessibility of IVF.
"For us to get the constitutional amendment - the, quote, 'sanctity of life' constitutional amendment from 2018 - back for a re-vote in front of Alabama voters," she said, "because that would be the long-term solution that would really protect IVF access."
Unless the constitutional amendment is repealed, she said, it could supersede any other law or code, specifically where the term 'child' or 'minor child' is not defined. Miller said the Yellowhammer Fund has resources on its website for people who want to know more.
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, is sponsoring two measures, including a constitutional amendment, to clarify that an extrauterine embryo should not be considered an "unborn life" or "unborn child."
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Legislation in Massachusetts would ban some of the tactics used by "crisis pregnancy centers" to prevent people from having abortions.
Many of the centers have the words "medical" or "health" in their names, but do not offer licensed reproductive medical care.
Laurie Veninger, reproductive rights activist for the Indivisible Massachusetts Coalition, said the centers advertise "free" tests and ultrasounds and then pressure women into continuing their pregnancies.
"If they were a business, that would be curtailed by existing laws about deceptive advertising," Veninger pointed out. "But these places are religious nonprofits."
Veninger explained the crisis centers are often located near abortion providers, where anti-abortion activists try to lure people their way. Abortion opponents contend the centers simply offer confidential services to those facing unplanned pregnancies.
Following complaints, the Department of Public Health recently sent a memo to nearly 30 crisis pregnancy centers regarding state laws and patients' rights.
Veninger argued Massachusetts is "in the crosshairs" of what she calls "religious extremists," targeting states where abortion remains legal. She asserted many low-income people are being deceived, with potentially dangerous outcomes.
"Some of them have told us that they called up and made an appointment, because they thought they were going there for an abortion," Veninger observed. "And then when they got there, didn't get one, and then, they had to wait another week to get the appointment at the real clinic."
Veninger emphasized the extra week can mean the difference between having a medication abortion or requiring a surgical procedure. A class-action lawsuit claims a nurse at the Clearway Clinic in Worcester County failed to inform a patient her ultrasound showed an ectopic pregnancy, nearly costing the patient her life.
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Florida voters will soon have the opportunity to express their views on abortion rights at the ballot box.
After Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a law last year restricting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the committee Floridians Protecting Freedom launched a petition drive for what it calls a constitutional "Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion."
Sarah Parker, president of Women's Voices of Southwest Florida, part of a coalition supporting the petition, said they were excited to receive notice Friday from the Florida Department of State confirming they have successfully secured the necessary number of valid signatures.
"Right now we are just elated to actually have a number," Parker noted. "It sounds good too: 'Vote Yes on 4 in 2024.' We've got over 900,000 petitions and we're looking forward to the next steps, which is a standard process of going to the Supreme Court, and we're confident."
The Florida Supreme Court will now weigh in on the acceptability of the wording of the amendment. Attorney General Ashley Moody and other opponents have already delivered objections. In October, Moody expressed concerns the language could be an attempt to "hoodwink" voters, arguing the term "viability" has multiple interpretations.
Confusion on the matter is likely to persist, given the actions of the Republican-controlled Legislature, which not only approved additional abortion restrictions, but also has more pending restrictions yet to take effect. The implementation of a six-week limit hinges on the outcome of an ongoing legal battle about a 15-week abortion limit passed in 2022. The resolution of the 15-week case is also pending at the Florida Supreme Court.
Parker hopes voters will have the final say.
"It would mean to stop government interference with an abortion and health care," Parker explained. "What we're doing is kind of taking it back to the times before Dobbs got overturned, before Roe got overturned."
Part of the amendment language states, "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."
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