Judge blocks 24-hour waiting period for abortions in Ohio, citing 2023 reproductive rights amendment
An Ohio county judge on Friday temporarily blocked several state laws that combined to create a 24-hour waiting period to obtain an abortion in the state, in the first judicial ruling on the merits of a 2023 constitutional amendment that guarantees access to the procedure.
Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said he would appeal.
Franklin County District Judge David C. Young said the text of last year’s first edition was “clear and unambiguous.” He found that attorneys for Preterm-Cleveland and the other abortion clinics and doctors who filed the lawsuit had clearly demonstrated “that the challenged laws burden, penalize, prohibit, impede and discriminate against patients who exercise their right to abortion and the health care providers who assist them in exercising that right.”
The challenged rules include a 24-hour waiting period, a requirement for an in-person visit and several state mandates requiring people seeking abortions to be given certain information. Young said those provisions do not promote patient health.
“This is a historic victory for abortion patients and for all Ohio voters who expressed support for the constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy,” Jessie Hill, a cooperating attorney with the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement. “It is clear that the newly amended Ohio Constitution is working as voters intended: to protect the fundamental right to abortion and prohibit the state from interfering with it, except when necessary to protect the health of a pregnant person.”
Hill said the ACLU would work to make the temporary injunction permanent.
Young rejected the state’s argument that the legal standard that existed before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 should have been applied. The Dobbs decision that replaced Roe returned decision-making power to the states, Young wrote.
Yost’s office said 24-hour waiting periods and informed consent laws were consistently upheld under Roe, the state’s law that has protected legal abortions for nearly 50 years.
“We have heard the voices of the people and recognize that reproductive rights are now protected by our Constitution,” Yost spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle said in a statement. “However, we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision that requiring doctors to obtain informed consent and wait 24 hours before performing an abortion is a burden. These are essential safety measures designed to ensure that women receive appropriate care and make voluntary decisions.”
