Running out the clock

This week, Kellie, Jaime, and Gabe discuss a potential 20-week abortion ban being voted on during the end of the 2016 legislative calendar. Email your Ohio state legislators to halt this abortion ban.

In September, Ohio Right to Life indicated to the Cleveland Plain Dealer that they intended to try to pass Senate Bill 127, which bans abortion at 20 weeks. There were 20,976 abortions performed in Ohio in 2015, but only 2% of all abortions reported were at 20 weeks are later. Anecdotal evidence shows that most of these procedures are performed after women receive diagnoses of medical complications, either threatening their own health or their pregnancy. Bans on abortions after 20-weeks punish women who wanted to have healthy pregnancies. Because 20-week bans block abortion before a point of viability, they are unconstitutional according to guidelines established in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.